Old country inns of England

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OLD COUNTRY INNS
OF ENGLAND

Uniform with this volume

INNS AND TAVERNS
OF OLD LONDON

Setting forth the historical and literary
associations of those ancient hostelries,
together with an account of the most
notable coffee-houses, clubs, and pleasure
gardens of the British metropolis.

By

HENRY C. SHELLEY

With coloured frontispiece, and
48 other illustrations

L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.

The Chequers, Loose

HENRY P. MASKELL

EDWARD W, GREGORY

With

THE AUTHORS

BOSTON

L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
MDCCCCXI

PREFACE

" WHY do your guide books tell us about
nothing but Churches and Manor Houses ?"
Such was the not altogether unjustifiable
complaint of an American friend whose
motor car was undergoing repairs. He was
stranded in a sleepy old market town of
winding streets, overhanging structures and
oddly set gables, where every stone and
carved beam seemed only waiting an
interpreter to unfold its story.

In the following pages we have attempted
a classification and description of the inns,
which not only sheltered our forefathers
when on their journeys, but served as their
usual places for meeting and recreation.
The subject is by no means exhausted. All
over England there are hundreds of other
old inns quite as interesting as those which
find mention, and it is hoped that our
work may prove for many tourists the
introduction to a most fascinating study.

Thoughtful men, including earnest Church-
men such as the Bishop of Birmingham and

906604:

vi Preface

the Rev. H. R. Gamble, are asking the
question whether the old inns should be
allowed to disappear. The public house as
a national institution has still its purposes
to fulfil, and a few suggestions have there-
fore been included with a view of showing
how it might easily be adapted to modern
social needs.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAG.i

I. MANORIAL INNS ..... 1

II. MONASTIC INNS 14

III. THE HOSPICES 29

IV. THE RISE OF THE TOWNS . . .41

V. THE CRAFT GUILDS AND TRADERS' INNS 56

VI. CHURCH INNS AND CHURCH ALES . . 67
VII. COACHING INNS . .... 81

VIII. WAYSIDE INNS AND ALEHOUSES . . 96

IX. HISTORIC SIGNS AND HISTORIC INNS . 112

X. SPORTS AND PASTIMES . . .135

XL THE INNS OF LITERATURE AND ART . 148

XII. FANCIFUL SIGNS AND CURIOUS SIGNBOARDS 160

XIII. HAUNTED INNS 181

XIV. OLD INNS AND THEIR ARCHITECTURE . 195
XV. THE COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER . . 209

XVI. THE NEW INN AND ITS POSSIBILITIES . 220

XVII. INN FURNITURE 237

XVIII. THE INNKEEPER . . . .256

XIX. PUBLIC HOUSE REFORM 272

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE CHEQUERS, LOOSE . . . Frontispiece

THE KING'S ARMS, HEMEL HEMPSTEAD . . x

THE SPREAD EAGLE, MIDHURST . . . 8, 10

THE BULL, SUDBURY . . . . . .19

PIGEON HOUSE AT THE BULL, LONG MELFORD . 21
YARD OF THE WHITE HORSE, DORKING . . .27
THE WHITE HART, BRENTWOOD .... 42

THE SWAN, FELSTEAD . . . . . .51

THE BRICKLAYERS' ARMS, CAXTON ... 61
THE GOLDEN FLEECE, SOUTH WEALD ... 63
PORCH, CHALK CHURCH, KENT . . . facing 67
CHURCH HOUSE, PENSHURST .... 72

THE PUNCH BOWL, HIGH EASTER . . 74, 76

YARD OF THE WHITE HART, ST. ALBANS . . 84
COACH GALLERY AT THE BULL, LONG MELFORD . 86
FIREPLACE AT THE WHITE HART, WITHAM . . 89
OLD COACHING INNS, ST. ALBANS . . .94

BOTOLPH'S BRIDGE INN, ROMNEY MARSH . . 95

THE WHITE HORSE, PLESHY 99

THE CHEQUERS, DODDINGTON . . . facing 104
THE CHEQUERS, REDBOURNE . . . .106

THE THREE HORSE SHOES, PAPWORTH EVERARD 108
THE HORSESHOES, LICKFOLD . . . 109

THE RED LION, WINGHAM 113

THE SWAN, SUTTON VALENCE . . . 116

List oi Illustrations ix

PACK

THE KING'S HEAD, ROEHAMPTON . . .119
THE NELSON, MAIDSTONE 129

THE HORSE AND GROOM, NEAR WALTHAM ST.

LAWRENCE ....... 136

THE FALSTAFF, CANTERBURY . . . .149
THE SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, NEWINGTON . . .152
SIGN OF THE Fox AND HOUNDS, BARLEY . .165
SIGN OF BLACK'S HEAD, ASHBOURNE . . .170
SIGN OF WHITE HART, WITH AM . . .173

THE ANGEL, THEALE 175

THE CLOTHIERS' ARMS, STROUD . . facing 184

THE GREYHOUND INN, STROUD . . . „ 190
THE SHIP, WINGHAM . . . . . .194

THE KING'S HEAD, AYLESBURY . . . .196

TAP-ROOM AT THE BULL, SUDBURY . . .198
THE KING'S HEAD, LOUGHTON, ESSEX . . facing 200
FIREPLACE AT THE SUN, PEERING .... 203

FIREPLACE AT THE NOAH'S ARK, LURGASHALL . 207
Fox AND PELICAN INN, HASLEMERE . facing 212

THE WHITE HORSE INN, STETCHWORTH, NEW-
MARKET ,,228

THE WOODMAN INN, FARNBOROUGH, KENT ,, 240

THE WHEATSHEAF INN, LOUGHTON, ESSEX . ,, 248
THE SKITTLES INN, LETCHWORTH, HERTS . ,, 254

RECREATION ROOM IN THE SKITTLES INN,

LETCHWORTH, HERTS ... ,, 266

THE BELL INN, BELL COMMON, EPPING . ,, 280

SIGN OF THK ANGEL INN, WOOLHAMPTON . . 285

The King's Arms, Hemel Hempstead

OLD COUNTRY INNS

CHAPTER I

MANORIAL INNS

WHICH among the thousand of old inns to
be met with on our country roads has a right
to be called the oldest ? There are many
claimants. The title-deeds of the Saracen's
Head at Newark refer back to 1341. Local
antiquaries cite documentary evidence to
prove that the Seven Stars at Manchester
existed before the year 1356. Symond
Potyn, who founded St. Catherine's Hospital
for poor Pilgrims at Rochester in 1316, is
described as "of the Crown Inn." A Not-
tingham ballad relates the adventures of one
Dame Rose who kept the Ram in that town
" in the days of good King Stephen." Then
we have the witness of the German Ambas-
sador to the comfort and excellence of the
Fountain at Canterbury, when he lodged there
in 1299, on the occasion of the marriage of
King Edward I to Margaret of France. Nay,
the legend runs that within its walls the four
murderers of St. Thomas arranged the last

* 12 Old Country Inns

details of their plot in 1170, and that the wife
of Earl Godwin stayed at this inn in 1029.
But what are all these compared with the
Fighting Cocks at St. Albans, said to be the
oldest inhabited house in England ? A few
years ago its signboard modestly chronicled
the fact that it had been " Rebuilt after the
Flood."

Nevertheless, we can safely assert that no
English inn has a history of more than 800
years, and that very few hostelries can trace
their independent existence to a period
earlier than the fourteenth century. Until
the towns had acquired rights of self-govern-
ment and trade had in consequence begun to
expand, there was little occasion for inns.
England under the Norman kings was a
purely agricultural country with scattered
villages where dependent tillers of the soil
grouped their clay-walled thatched hovels
around church and manor-house. Even
ancient towns, with a record of a thousand
years, were merely rather larger villages on
a navigable river or a cross road. Foreign
merchant ships were just beginning to call
once more at the seaports on the chance of
trade.

Travelling on the roads was attended with

Manorial Inns

serious dangers and inconveniences. Rob-
bers abounded, some not so courteous and
discriminating as the legendary Robin Hood.
Armed retainers at the tail of some noble
lord's retinue were occasionally not above a
little highway robbery on their own account,
and if the victim failed to beat off his assailant
his remedy at law was precarious at best.
Such a band, if sufficiently numerous, would
even go so far as to attack the King's officers
sent in pursuit of them. The journey might
at any time be brought to an abrupt conclu-
sion because the travellers' horses and carts
were forcibly commandeered by the purveyor
to the King or some great noble. The roads
themselves were in a disgraceful state, full
of deep ruts, holes and quagmires, quite
impassable in wet weather ; their repair was
left to chance or the good-will of neighbouring
owners. In the towns they were encumbered
with heaps of refuse. The rolls of Parlia-
ment from the reign of Edward I onward
contain numerous petitions for a regular
highway tax.

A curious illustration of the lack of any
systematic authority over the roads, even as
late as the fifteenth century, is preserved in
the records of the Manor of Aylesbury. A

Old Country Inns

local miller, named Richard Boose, needed
some ramming clay for the repair of his mill.
Accordingly his servants dug a great pit in
the middle of the road, ten feet wide and
eight feet deep, and so left it to become filled
with water from the winter rains. A glover
from Leighton Buzzard, on his way home
from market, fell in and was drowned.
Charged with manslaughter, the miller pleaded
that he knew no place wherein to get the
kind of clay he required except on the high
road. He was acquitted.1

Furthermore, all England was parcelled
out into manors, each a little principality in
itself presided over by a lord who in practice
possessed summary rights over life and pro-
perty within his domain. A stranger might
be called upon to undergo a very searching
examination to account for his presence in
the neighbourhood. Most of the inhabitants
were forbidden to leave the demesne without
the consent of their lord. Not that this was
a great hardship; the idea of a journey
rarely occurs to the bucolic mind, and fully
half the rural population of England in these
days of cheap railway excursions are content
to spend their lives within their native parish,

1 Parker's " Manor of Aylesbury," 14.

Manorial Inns

or at any rate never venture beyond the
market town.

In every manor there was a manor-house,
the residence of the lord and the centre of
the life of the community. It was usually
quite a simple building on the main street
near the church. Here were held the manor
courts, view of frank pledge, assize of bread
and ale and other quaint customs, some of
which have come down to our own days.
Hither at Hocktide and harvest would
come the tenants and their wives, bringing
their own platters, cups and napkins for their
feast.

Such few travellers as were benighted on
the road, small merchants or pedlars going
to a local fair, a knight or squire on his way
to court, Kings' messengers and officials,
would naturally put up at the manor-house.
Hospitality was so rarely called for that it
was willingly afforded, just as it is at an Aus-
tralian homestead in the backwoods. One
more sleeping place on the rushes in the hall,
another seat at the common table — above
or below the salt according to the hosteller's
estimate of the guest's condition in life —
was no great matter. Doubtless each in his
own degree made his present to the hosteller

6 Old Country Inns

in the morning ; the butler in a country
house still expects his solatium from the
parting guest.

By the middle of the fourteenth century
the roads had become more frequented, and
it was no longer the fashion for the lord to
reside in the comparatively humble manor-
house. The cost of living had seriously
increased ; the nobility were impoverished
by attendance at court, the foreign wars, and
their crowd of retainers. So the lord retired
to his more secluded castle or country seat,
leaving strangers to be entertained at the
manor-house by a steward who afterwards
was replaced by a regular innkeeper as tenant.
Throughout these changes the family crest
or arms remained on the front of the building.
Or sometimes the manor-house was turned to
other uses and an inn was built close by, and
the coat of arms hung over the door in order
to induce travellers to transfer their custom
thither. Such is the origin of the official
inn throughout feudal Europe, but in the
Black Forest and the Tyrol the process was
sometimes completely reversed. As the
nobility became poorer they parted with
their estates and turned innkeepers. One
can still now and then make the surprising

Memorial Inns

discovery that mine host is by birth a baron,
actually entitled to bear the arms above his
door, and that it is his ancestors who sleep
under those magnificent marble tombs in
the minster hard by.

Inns with heraldic emblems for their signs,
or called the Norfolk Arms, Dorset Arms,
Neville Arms, according to the local land-
owner, abound everywhere — the actual arms
scarcely ever being emblazoned on account
of the heavy tax on armorial bearings. But
it is not easy to trace their connection with
the manor-house. Manors have been alien-
ated over and over again ; with each change
the sign on the inn has usually been repainted
with the arms of the new owner. One of the
few exceptions is the Tiger at Lindfield,
which carries us back to the Michelbournes
of the fourteenth century.

For a characteristic example of a manorial
inn we must invite our readers to visit the
sleepy town of Midhurst, venerable in its
winding streets of projecting upper stories,
deeply moulded eaves and gables ; a town
nestling among the gentler slopes of the South
Downs, on the banks of that sweetest and
most musical of trout streams, the Sussex
Rother. Here is an old inn, far away from

a— (2244)

8

Old Country Inns

the great roads which no vandal has yet
ventured to rebuild. The older portion dates
from about 1430, and no doubt stands on the
site of the original manor-house of the De
Bohuns. It is an excellent example of an

The Spread Eagle, Midhurst

early timber-framed house of the better class,
with massive old oak ceilings, ingle-nooks
and " down " fires. The old fireplaces and
recessed ovens are pronounced by experts to
be genuine fourteenth-century work. A
very large addition was made in 1650, when
the stables were also built. This latter por-
tion will not be regretted by the visitor who

Manorial Inns 9

loves more comfort and cheery surroundings
than is possible in a conscientiously preserved
fourteenth-century hotel.

In clearing away the paint from one of
the panelled rooms at the Spread Eagle an
inscription was discovered : " The Queen's
Room/' possibly referring to the much
travelled Queen Elizabeth who was enter-
tained "marvellously, nay rather excessively,"
by Sir Anthony Browne, first Viscount
Montagu, at Cowdray, in 1591. A melan-
choly interest attaches to the sign of the
Spread Eagle. It was the crest of the
Montagu family, which came to an end
in 1793 with the drowning of the last
Viscount Montagu at Schaffhausen, on the
Rhine, in the very same week that his
splendid mansion at Cowdray was destroyed
by fire.

It is worth noting that the double-gabled
house in the foreground of our first picture
of the Spread Eagle (once also an inn, now
a cosy temperance hotel) was built early in
the seventeenth century by an ancestor of
Richard Cobden.

On royal manors the crown was more
frequently employed as a distinguishing mark
of the manorial hall than the royal arms.

10

Old Country Inns

Inns having for their signs the King's Arms
have usually assumed this title during the
Reformation period when the royal arms
were ordered to be set up in the churches.
An exception is the Kings Arms Hotel at

The Spread Eagle, Midhurst

Godalming, which has every reason to claim
to be the original inn of the royal manor.
The present building is not much more than
two centuries old, a fine substantial example
of red-brick domestic architecture in the
reign of good Queen Anne. An oak -panelled

Manorial Inns 11

room is shown to visitors as that in which
Peter the Great Czar of Russia slept during
his visit to England. The landlord's bill on
this occasion is preserved as a curiosity in
the Bodleian library. The items of the bill
are as follows : Breakfast — half a sheep, a
quarter of lamb, ten pullets, twelve chickens,
three quarts of brandy, six quarts of mulled
wine, seven dozen of eggs, with salad in pro-
portion. At dinner the company had five
ribs of beef weighing three stone, one sheep
weighing fifty pound, three quarters of lamb,
a shoulder and loin of veal boiled, eight
pullets, eight rabbits, two-and-a-half dozen
sack and one dozen of claret. The number
of guests was twenty-one.

There is another old inn at Godalming with
the sign of Three Lions. We have not been
able to obtain any authentic information
about its history, and it may be only a coinci-
dence that the royal arms before Edward III
quartered the arms of France consisted of
three lions on a shield.

Even if inns that can prove their authentic
manorial origin are few and far between,
this class of hostelry must once have been the
most important of all. The nomenclature
of the thirteenth-century manor is preserved

12 Old Country Inns

in every detail of the modern inn. The
hosteller remains as the ostler, who now
usually confines his attention to four-footed
visitors ; the chamberlain has changed his
sex (though only since the days of Sir Roger
de Coverley) and has become the Chamber-
maid. In most old manor-houses provisions,
wine and ale were served from a special
department close to the porch and called the
11 bower/' from Norse Bur, meaning buttery.
Frequenters of a modern inn resort for the
same purpose to the " bar." Lastly, the
presiding genius in every hotel or tavern, no
matter how humble, is invariably referred to
as " the Landlord." The very word " Inn,"
like the French hotel, anciently implied the
town residence of a nobleman. The Inns
of Court were nearly all of them houses of
the nobility converted for the purpose
of lodging the law students there. The
same remark applies to the inns which
preceded the cloistered colleges of our older
universities.

But we usually know the English inn by a
much nobler name — a name which carries
us back to an age many generations before
there were any manorial lords to the tribal
chief, and beyond the tribal chieftain to the

Manorial Inns 13

common dwelling of our Aryan forefathers.
We generally refer to it as " The public-
house." It is the one secular place of resort
where we can all forget our social differences ;
where millionaire and pauper, nobleman and
navvy can hob-nob together on equal ground
if they care to do so. The public -house opens
its doors to every well-behaved citizen without
distinction of persons. It is the abiding witness
to the common brotherhood of man. For
the public -house is not merely an institution
to provide lodging and refreshment for the
individual wayfarer, nor yet a shop for the
sale of certain specific liquids ; it is a place
where men can meet to entertain each other,
and converse with their fellow men on equal
terms. As such it is hateful to the sectary,
who would fain see men sorted out into
exclusive coteries for the airing of their own
opinions and class grievances.

CHAPTER II

MONASTIC INNS

RURAL England, during the two centuries
after the Conquest, was practically under
martial law. The hardy Men of Kent and
the Vale of Holmsdale were strong enough
to retain some of their ancient rights and
privileges. Beyond these districts local
government was suppressed and a military
despotism took its place, administered often
by half-civilized chieftains. One influence
alone was formidable enough to modify and
soften the crude tyranny of the feudal system
—that of the Monasteries.

The religious orders were the only class who
had directly profited by the new regime to
increase their power. Hitherto merely
national they now became, in a way, part of
an international system. Not that they
ceased to be patriotic. In the combinations
against regal misrule which produced the
Great Charters, Bishops and Abbots threw
in their lot heartily with the lay barons.
But in themselves they formed at this time

14

Monastic Inns 15

an almost independent authority with special
privileges dangerous to meddle with, because
behind them was the Universal Church and
its temporal head the Pope, now just reaching
the zenith of his authority.

It was the religious orders that saved Eng-
land from barbarism. Each monastery was
a kind of impregnable city within which all
the graces of civilization were fostered. Here
learning, literature and art were diligently
studied ; rich and poor, bondman and free,
were welcomed as scholars if only they proved
their ability to profit by the tuition. A
certain number of manors were allotted to
the Church, and this number was constantly
being increased by royal or private benefac-
tion. The tenants of ecclesiastical manors,
more especially the villeins or serfs, were in
these early times much better treated than
those subject to the secular lords. The
tenures were generally easy, labour customs
could be commuted for a small sum of money,
and the serfs could acquire freedom on very
moderate terms. Enlightened forms of lease
were introduced.

The monks were the great agriculturists
of the Middle Ages, and so were concerned in
the maintenance of facilities for traffic. Apart

16 Old Country Inns

from this their one duty to the State was to
satisfy the trinoda necessitas, particularly the
care of roads and bridges. This was con-
sidered a pious and meritorious duty often
rewarded with special indulgences ; such
undertakings were a work of mercy, in that
they befriended the unfortunate traveller.
The roads adjoining a monastic estate were
usually kept in fair condition, as compared
with those in other districts. The first
London Bridge was built by the Prior of St.
Mary Overie ; another great endowed bridge,
that over the Medway at Rochester, owes its
origin to the great St. Dunstan. Nearly all
the picturesque gothic bridges which still
survive were the work of the monks. Travel-
ling was in many other ways directly fostered
by the monasteries. Communications were
constantly passing between the various houses
of an order, many of which were on the Con-
tinent. Authority for the election of a new
abbot or a change in the statutes would have
to be obtained from Rome. The two cen-
turies after the Conquest witnessed a con-
tinual rebuilding and beautifying of the Abbey
Churches. Materials had to be brought from
a distance, skilled artists engaged, rich plate,
metal work, and ornate vestments procured

Monastic Inns 17

for the altar -service. All this was a great
stimulus to trade.

The doors of the monastery were open to all
comers, and there were many reasons why
hospitality would be sought at a religious
house in preference to the manorial inn.
Rich people resorted to them because of their
comfort and security ; the poor because there
was nothing to pay. No unpleasant ques-
tions were likely to be asked ; so we find
Quentin Durward (in the novel of Sir Walter
Scott, which gives us such an excellent idea
of the period he describes,) always avoiding
the public inns and taking refuge at the
monasteries in order to minimize the risk
of his secret mission being betrayed. Most
of these houses had been endowed by the
king or nobles, and their descendants con-
sidered themselves at home within the
precincts.

These noble guests, especially when they
were accompanied by a miscellaneous retinue,
were apt to be rather too roisterous and
turbulent for the cloister. A statute of
Edward I forbids anyone to lodge at a reli-
gious house without the formal invitation of
the Superior, unless he be the founder, and
then he must conform closely to the rules and

18 Old Country Inns

regulations. The poor alone were to retain the
right to the grace of hospitality free of charge.
Numerous later statutes were enacted with
the same end in view. The monks of Battle
rebuilt their Guest House outside the Abbey
Gate where it still remains a most beautiful
example of fifteenth-century half-timber work.
Long before this time, however, another
expedient had been devised to cope with the
increasing crowd of travellers needing rest
and refreshment.

Whenever we come across an inn bearing
the sign of the Bull it is worth while to
inquire whether there was formerly a religious
house in the neighbourhood. We have exam-
ined into the history of upwards of a hundred
" Bulls/' and even where definite proof has
not been forthcoming, the circumstantial
evidence has always been sufficient to arouse
suspicion. It is especially a common sign in
connection with a nunnery. Thus the inns
of this name at Dartford, Barking and Mailing,
all three very ancient, belonged to the local
abbeys. At Hythe, on the Medway, a manor
of Mailing Abbey, there is a Bull Inn ; and
another at Theale in Berkshire, which was the
property of the prioress of Goring. Elfrida,
the mother-in-law of Edward the Martyr,

Monastic Inns

19

founded a nunnery at Reading in expiation
of the base murder of that prince. This
nunnery was abolished owing to scandals in
the twelfth century, but a Bull Inn still
flourishes near the site of the Abbey Gate.

The Bull, Sudbury

At Newington, next Sittingbourne, the
prioress was found strangled in her bed and
the nuns were removed elsewhere, but the
Bull remains as the chief inn to this day.

In deeds of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries relating to the Bull at Barking,
this house is referred to as " tectum vel

20 Old Country Inns

hospitium vocatum le Bole." Bole is the old
French equivalent of the Latin bulla, a seal
from which it is clear that no bovine connec-
tion is implied by the sign, but merely that
the inn was licensed under the seal of the
Abbey. Some antiquaries have suggested
that such inns were tied houses where ale of
monastic brewing was sold, reminding us
of the current explanation of the xx and xxx
marks on barrels of strong ale, as having been
originally the seals guaranteeing the quality
in the days when the monks were the leading
brewers. It is true that the peculiar virtue
of the wells at Burton-on-Trent was known
at a very early period, and that the ale
brewed in the local Abbey was an article of
commerce when Richard I was king. Tied
houses were not uncommon in the Middle
Ages, witness the Bear Inn in Southwark,
leased in 1319 by Thomas Drinkwater, wine
merchant to James Beauflur, on condition
that he purchased all his liquor from the said
Thomas Drinkwater, who agreed to furnish
all needful flagons, mugs, cutlery and linen.
On the other hand, very few collegiate houses
brewed ale beyond the needs of their own
consumption, and we have not yet come
across any lease binding their tenants.

Monastic Inns

21

Mention is often made of a brewhouse attached
to the inn. As to the marks on the barrels
a prosaic solution is that these are merely
excise marks of the seventeenth century,
when beer was taxed according to its strength.
Whatever the terms of its original lease

Pigeon House at the Bull, Long Melford

may have been the Bull profited by monastic
favour and protection to grow into a big and
prosperous establishment. It is nearly always
the leading hostelry of the town. Two centu-
ries ago the Bull at St. Albans was described
by Baskerville as the largest in England,

22 Old Country Inns

but with the decay of the coaching trade
it has retired into private life. Mr. Jingle's
recommendation of the Bull at Rochester,
" Good house, nice beds/' might be fairly
applied to nearly every Bull Inn of our
acquaintance. The sign is a symbol of steady-
going respectable old-fashioned ways, where
comfort is not sacrificed to economy, and
where the cellar and kitchen are alike irre-
proachable. Any remnants of antiquity are
concealed behind a broad Georgian fagade,
for good business entails frequent rebuilding.
The Bull at Barking is now to all appearance
a quite modern hotel. Few would guess that
its history could be traced for seven hundred
years, and that twice during that time it has
been occupied by a single family for more
than a century. In 1636 it was sold to St.
Margaret's Hospital in Westminster, for the
sum of one shilling ; and therefore continues
to be collegiate property.

To avoid confusion we must remind the
reader that the " Bull's Head " denotes the
crest of the Nevilles or, occasionally, Anne
Boleyn. The Pied Bull is a whimsical sign
found near a cattle market or bull-ring. A
few inns, too, received the name of the Bull
in Elizabethan or Jacobean times when

Monastic Inns 23

astrology was popular, and Taurus happened
to be the house ascendant in the horary
figure. Thus in Ben Jonson's "Alchemist " :

" A townsman born in Taurus given the bull, or the
Bull's head ; in Aries the ram."

Sometimes in place of the official seal the
monastic inn bore for its sign a picture or
carving of a religious mystery. Outside the
Abbey Gate, at Bury St. Edmunds, is the
Angel Inn, once called the Angelus or Saluta-
tion ; there is another Angel Inn, probably
monastic, in Guildford. Both of these are
famous for their beautiful Early English
crypts, groined and vaulted in stone. The
Angel 3.t Grantham belonged to the Knights
Templars. At Addington in Kent the Angel
has a very odd staircase of great antiquity,
each tread being a solid log of timber ; and
an underground passage, which local gossip
connects with a priory at Ryarsh. Another
monastic Angel at Basingstoke is said to be
the subject of Ben Jonson's coarse epigram,
inspired by the departure of his hostess,
Mrs. Hope and her daughter Prudence. The
Cock as an emblem of St. Peter, and the
Crosskeys are frequently found. The most
interesting inn in the city of Westminster
was the Cock and Tabard, in Tothill Street,

a— (2244)

24 Old Country Inns

pulled down in 1871. It dated from the
reign of Edward III, and it was here, according
to Stowe, that the workmen engaged in the
completion of the Abbey Church were paid.
From its yard two centuries later the first
stage-coach to Oxford was started. Battle
Abbey possessed several " Star " inns, the
best known of which was the Star at Alfriston,
which may either be named after Our Lady,
Star of the Sea, or after the Earl of Sussex,
one of whose badges was the star.

Semi-religious signs such as the Angel, Star
and Mitre are not always monastic, nor need
they imply pre-reformation origin. The Angel
at Islington is, comparatively speaking, a
mushroom upstart. Under the sign of the
Angel, Jacobs, a Jew, opened in 1650 one of
the first coffee-houses in the parish of St.
Peter, Oxford. A pious Roundhead might
find chapter and verse for the sign and gloat
over the conceit of entertaining an Angel-
perhaps not unawares. Puritan sects have
been known to give the official title of " Angel "
to their itinerant preachers. The Cock Tavern,
in Fleet Street, in spite of the splendid gilt
chanticleer (generally attributed to Grinling
Gibbons) has no connection with St. Peter.
An advertisement, printed in the Intelligence

Monastic Inns 25

of 1665, shows that its old name was the
Cock and Bottle. Cock is still used in some
parts of the country for the spigot, or tap in
a barrel ; and the sign was simply a short
way of informing the bibulous that they
could obtain here ale both on draught and in
bottle.

A monastic inn far exceeding in world-wide
fame all others, is that Tabard Inn in the
Borough, whence five hundred years ago
thirty merry pilgrims set forth on a spring-
tide morning on their three days' journey
along the old Watling Street to Canterbury.
The Tabard was a speculation of the Abbot
of Hyde, Winchester, and no doubt a profit-
able one, for its landlords were always men of
character and substance who would attract
guests of good class. Harry Bailey, Chaucer's
friend, represented Southwark in two succes-
sive parliaments , and another landlord, William
Rutton, sat in Parliament for East Grinstead
in 1529. Built in 1307, together with a
hostel for the clergy of the monastery, it
remained in much the same condition as
when Chaucer sang its praises until about
1602. The stone-coloured wooden gallery, in
front of which hung a picture of the Canter-
bury Pilgrimage, attributed to Blake, and the

26 Old Country Inns

so-called " Pilgrim's room " were probably
of this period ; the rest was rebuilt after the
great fire of Southwark, 1676. Twenty years
ago all was demolished, and a gin-shop on its
site of modern, vulgar red-brick mock gothic
absurdly claims the title of " The Old Tabard"

One religious order never attempted to
divert the increasing stream of guests into
the inns. With the Knights Hospitallers all
comers were welcomed ; the entertainment
of strangers remained their chief duty. The
accounts of their house in Clerkenwell for the
year 1337 show that they had spent more
than their whole revenue — at least £8,000,
the reason being, as the prior explains, the
hospitality given to strangers, members of
the royal family and other grandees who all
expected to be entertained in accordance
with their rank. A noble would occasionally
send his whole suite to the convent in order
to save expense. The Knight monks finding
no Paynim to demolish became an order of
hotel -keepers, and travellers never failed to
profit by the generous fare provided in their
numerous establishments.

At Dorking, when the Knights departed,
the innkeeper took their place and continues
to keep up the old traditions. The White

28 Old Country Inns

Cross is now the White Horse, though not
from any similarity of names but because the
Earls of Arundel, and afterwards the Dukes
of Norfolk, were lords of the manor. In later
life the White Horse was a famous coaching
house, and rebuildings have apparently
destroyed any feature older than say three
centuries. Perhaps it was in the yard of
this house, where a noble old vine spreads
green fragrance over the great white gables,
that Charles Dickens met the individual who
sat for the portrait of Tony Weller. Deep
underneath the building are a series of vaults
cut out of the sandstone — maybe a relic of
the Hospitallers. In one of the lowest is a
curious old well. Tradition has it that these
cellars were used in the smuggling days. To
lovers of the road the quaint gables and broad
oriels of the White Horse are no mean land-
mark, for they are the destination of a real
old-fashioned coach and four running hither
from Charing Cross daily during the summer
months.

CHAPTER III

THE HOSPICES

MENTION of the Knights Hospitallers brings
us by an easy stage to pilgrimages ; it was
the original purpose of this order to keep
open the route to the Holy Places and to
assist the sick and needy pilgrims on their
journey. Some pious merchants of Amalfi
obtained permission to found a refuge for
destitute pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre at
Jerusalem, about the middle of the eleventh
century. At first the brethren of St. John
were content with nursing the sick and
relieving the hungry in the Jerusalem Hos-
pice, and in this work of mercy earned the
toleration of Saladin when he once more
captured Jerusalem from the Christians.
But at this time they had already taken to
the sword and had become very active and
trenchant members of the Church Militant.
Rich in glowing romance and stirring
adventure is the story of the pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, and the many expeditions to
regain possession of the Holy Land. We are

29

30 Old Country Inns

more concerned with the ordinary English-
man. While the Crusade ensured the absence
for a season of a goodly number of turbulent
lords and truculent retainers, he was at
liberty to visit the shrines of his own country.
At Glastonbury was the chapel of St. Joseph
of Arimathea and the sacred Thorn, as
venerable as anything in Christendom.
Hardly less ancient was the shrine of the first
martyr, St. Alban ; while at Durham he might
kneel in reverence before the relics of the
great St. Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede.
St. Ethelbert of Hereford and St. Edmund
at Bury St. Edmunds would equally invite
the suffrages of their clients.

Pilgrimages played their part, and a very
important one too, in the making of England.
They gave the ordinary man an opportunity
to travel. A subject race of stolid peasantry,
who otherwise would never have left the
confines of their lord's estate, were encouraged
to go on a long journey and see what the
world outside was like. If any man wished
to go on a pilgrimage he needed only a scrip
and staff consecrated by his parish priest.
So furnished no lord could detain him. By
virtue of his pious and meritorious vow he
would find friends and assistance everywhere.

The Hospices 31

The most desperate characters would respect
the sanctity of his profession • if a robber
found that his victim was a pilgrim he restored
all that he had taken.1 During his absence,
any monastery was prepared to take charge
of his affairs, nor could any legal proceedings
be taken against him until his return. Pil-
grimages were the thin end of the wedge
which was destined to shatter the whole
feudal system. They sowed the seeds of the
great Revolt of the peasants under Richard
II. They instilled into the heart of the
people that roving restless spirit that made
the Englishman the most successful coloniser
the world has ever known.

Under the very curfew the torch of liberty
was smouldering. It is significant that nearly
all the places of popular pilgrimage estab-
lished between the eleventh and fourteenth
centuries had a political basis. The figure
of the last king of the old English stock
stood out bright against the darkness of Eng-
land, trodden under foot by the foreigner.
Memories of peace, prosperity, and independ-
ence gathered round his name, and while
men were clamouring for the good laws of
Edward the Confessor, throngs of pilgrims

1 " Paston Letters," III, 304.

32 Old Country Inns

hastened to implore intercession of the Saint ;
to-day his tomb in the Abbey of Westminster
is the most hallowed spot for every true
Englishman. A century later the scene of
the martyrdom at Canterbury was attracting
even vaster crowds, nearly one-tenth of the
whole population of the country resorting
hither for worship in a single year. We may
well believe that they came to reverence
St. Thomas of Canterbury, as not merely a
devout ascetic, but as the first Commoner
of English birth who dared to brave the
absolute power of the King.

There were several quite unauthorised pil-
grimages of political origin. Thomas, Earl
of Lancaster, who had headed the barons
in their agitation against Edward II and the
royal favourites, became, after his execution,
a saint in popular estimation ; pilgrimages
were organised to Pontefract as well as to
a picture of the " Saint" set up in St. Paul's
Cathedral in spite of royal protests. By a
strange revulsion of sentiment the tomb of
Edward II, himself one of the least desirable
of kings, became a place of pilgrimage ; and
a special inn had to be built at Gloucester to
accommodate those who wished to make
their prayers and vows on his behalf. The

The Hospices 33

good Simon de Montfort, although he died
under excommunication, was accounted a
saint ; and Latin hymns and versicles were
composed for his office.1

Of all the devotional pilgrimages none
could stand in comparison with Our Lady
of Walsingham. It may be regarded as illus-
trative of the English character that this
shrine grew into notoriety, without any
startling miracle, from simple and homely
beginnings. A pious Norfolk lady caused a
little wooden house to be built in imitation
of the Holy House at Nazareth and invited
her neighbours to join with her there in
meditation on the mystery of the Immacu-
late Conception. With time and a great
concourse of pilgrims came an elaboration
of legend and a variety of foreign acces-
sories, maybe exaggerated in the half satirical
description given by Erasmus. But when the
true unvarnished story of Walsingham comes
to be written it will show that to the very end
a degree of sober good sense controlled the
authorities there.

In the fourteenth century pilgrimages had
become the fashion for all classes. With

1 See also J. J. Jusserand. " English Wayfaring Life,"
p. 342.

34 Old Country Inns

kings and nobles they were a ceremonial
duty. The sick man went to regain his
health and discovered it, maybe, on the breezy
heath or sunny downs long before he reached
the Shrine. The simple devout soul, no
doubt, found in the restful minster the reli-
gious consolation he came in search of. More
worldly people enjoyed an inexpensive
holiday. Merchants went on pilgrimages to
avoid their creditors. During their absence
an uncomfortable " slump " in business could
be tided over. Chaucer half conveys a sly
suggestion that this was the motive under-
lying the presence of the merchant in the
"Canterbury Tales " :

" There wiste no wight that he was in debt."
Workmen weary of a thankless task found a
pretext in a pilgrimage for going off on the
quest of a new master. An idle apprentice
had an excuse ready at hand for exchanging
the dull city workshop for a week in the
Kentish orchards. A villein might succeed
in reaching some distant town where he could
live unbeknown by his lord for the necessary
year and a day which meant permanent
freedom. Statutes were passed over and
over again to restrain these abuses, but they
were all evaded. The pilgrimage was an

The Hospices 35

institution hallowed from time immemorial,
and none could gainsay the right of every
Christian man to take in hand his scrip and
staff.

Imagine the motley procession almost
ceaseless from morn till eve on the Roman
roads to the North through St. Albans, East-
ward to Canterbury, or Westward by Reading
or Salisbury towards the favoured resort.
Ladies of rank in their horse-litters or rich
tapestried carriages ; peasants in their spring-
less two- wheeled dog-carts. Then a company
of middle -class people on horseback, all of
them, men and women alike, well able to
manage their steeds. The very poor travelled
on foot, and many better class trod barefoot
some portion of the Walsingham green way
as a penitential exercise. Lame, halt and
blind negotiated their journey as best they
could. The pilgrim roads were fairly good ;
Watling Street ran almost straight as an arrow
as it was set out by the Roman engineers
from Deptford to Canterbury. All roads
were said to lead to Walsingham, and that
through Ware and Newmarket, if not Roman,
was nearly as direct. Pilgrims on horse-
back from the West of England might utilize
the so-called " Pilgrims' Way " to Canterbury,

36 Old Country Inns

but by the fourteenth century the
Kentish portion had been broken up into a
series of feeders to the Watling Street. A
similar bridle path ran from Newmarket
towards Fakenham on the Walsingham route.

When night fell these wayfarers would tax
all available resources for their shelter and
sustenance. At the manor-house they were
very unwelcome ; the lord had good cause
to detest the idea of poor people going on
pilgrimage. The monastery could only
receive a small proportion. Many needed
nursing as well as rest. And so a special
form of lodging-house — half inn, half charit-
able institution had to be devised. The great
Hospice at Jerusalem, which provided for
fully a thousand visitors at one time, was
regarded as the model, but the idea is much
older. At Cebrero, in Northern Spain, there
is a Hospicio Real, founded in 836 by King
Alphonso II, for pilgrims crossing the pass of
Piedrafita on the way from Segovia to St.
James of Compostella. St. John's Hospital
at Winchester claims to have been originally
founded by St. Brinstan about the year 930
for sick and poor pilgrims to St. S within.

For the Canterbury pilgrims there were
many of these hospices. That at Rochester,

The Hospices 37

a private benefaction, we have already men-
tioned. The George Inn, which still can show
a fine Early English crypt, may also be des-
cribed as a pilgrims' inn, though, perhaps,
like that at St. Albans, for the better class
of people. There was a pilgrims' resting
house at Bapchild, near Sittingbourne. Os-
pringe, near Faversham, takes its name not
from the spring which used to babble so
pleasantly along the water lane, but from
the great hospice founded by Henry III.
By a similar " derangement of epitaphs " the
hospice at Colnbrook has developed into the
Ostrich Inn. A considerable portion of the
hospice at Ospringe survives to this day in
half-timbered buildings around the Crown Inn,
and the chapel is said to form the foundations
of the Ship Inn on the opposite side of the
road. It is more likely that this inn stands
on the site of the separate establishment
provided for lepers. This hospice must have
been of great extent and provided accommo-
dation for rich and poor alike. A master
and three regular brethren of the Order of
the Holy Cross were to superintend the work
of hospitality and nursing. Owing to an
outbreak of the plague in the reign of Edward
IV the brethren forsook the place in a panic

38 Old Country Inns

and died without taking care to choose
their successors. The property escheated to
the Crown ; hence the presence of the
Crown Inn.

Canterbury abounded in hospices of various
kinds, some specially reserved for the poorer
clergy. The fourteenth century fa$ade and
vaulted lower storey of one of these still
survives in the High Street. Originally estab-
lished by St. Thomas himself, it was rebuilt
by Archbishop Stratford, whose regulations
provided that every pilgrim in health should
have one night's lodging to the cost of four-
pence (about five shillings in modern money) ;
the weak and infirm were to be preferred to
the hale, and women upwards of forty years
were to attend to the bedding and administer
medicaments to the sick.

At Maidstone, there was a large hospice
for pilgrims travelling to Canterbury by
Mailing and Charing. St. Peter's Church was
formerly the Chapel of this institution. At
Reading the hospice was founded by Abbot
Hugh about 1180 and dedicated to St. John
the Baptist. A sisterhood of eight widows
ministered to the wants of the pilgrims. We
may mention also the hospitals of St. N Giles
and St. Ethelbert at Hereford, both of

The Hospices 39

very ancient date. At the latter alms were
distributed to a hundred poor people daily.

Under the sign of the George Inn we can
often detect the successor to a pilgrims'
hostel dedicated to St. George of the Dragon.
The George, at Glastonbury, the very finest
existing example of an inn built in stone
during the Perpendicular period, was founded
by Abbot Selwood in 1489, and provided
board and lodging to pilgrims free of charge
for two days. The George at St. Albans, is
more suggestive in its present state of a cosy
well-ordered coaching inn of the Georgian
period, with nothing visible of antiquity
except its panelled staircase and beautiful
old furniture. But its records carry us back
to 1401, and in 1448 it received a licence
from the Abbot for the celebration of low
mass in the private chapel on account of the
many noble and worthy personages who
resorted thither when on pilgrimage to the
Cathedral. At another George and Dragon
hospice at Wymondham, the Saint has suc-
cumbed to the reptile, and the Green Dragon
presides alone on the signboard.

Pilgrims to shrines beyond sea were not
forgotten. At Dover the Maison Dieu was
built and endowed by Hubert de Burgh,

4— (8244)

40 Old Country Inns

the great Justiciary, in the reign of Edward
III ; and on crossing to Calais the adventurer
found another Maison Dieu, the first of a
long chain of resting-places on the way to
Rome, the Three Kings at Cologne, or Roca-
madour, in Guyenne, according as his fancy
or devotion might direct him.

CHAPTER IV

THE RISE OF THE TOWNS

EVERY high road leads sooner or later to a
market town, and in that town the tourist
may be sure of finding a White Hart Inn.
The White Hart is the commonest of signs all
through England. Half-timbered and ram-
bling, with the marks of decrepit old age and
long service writ large all over it, this inn is
in evidence near the market-place, often in
a street of the same name, to remind us of
its importance in the days gone by. Some-
times, as at Guildford and Brent wood, the old
building lies hidden behind a more modern
front. When the builder has laid violent
hands on a White Hart, title-deeds or other
authentic records of its antiquity are in nearly
every case available.

A vague tradition attempts to explain
these inns as royal posting-houses, it being
supposed that stations to supply fresh horses
for the royal journeys were first established
during the last years of Edward III. Un-
doubtedly the White Hart inns all date from

41

42

Old Country Inns

the beginning of the reign of Richard II.
After the scandals and misrule during the

The White Hart, Brentwood

long dotage of his father, the nation centred
all their hopes in the young king who showed
promise of becoming a wise and able ruler.

The Rise of the Towns 43

The policy of the good Parliament would
once more govern in the council, and it seemed
a happy omen when he took for his badge
the white stag with a collar of gold around
his neck. This legend, portrayed on so many
signboards, was a delight of the mediaeval
romantic writers : the white hart was never
to be taken alive except by one who had
conquered the whole world. Its oldest form
appears in the pages of Aristotle who relates
how Diomedes consecrated a white stag to
Diana ; and how it lived for a thousand years
before it was killed by Agathocles, King of
Sicily. Pliny gives Alexander the Great, and
later writers Julius Caesar and Charlemagne,
as the Emperors who captured the young
white stag and released it after decorating
it with the golden band. On the Dorchester
road, near Stowminster, there used to be
an inn with this kingly stag painted for a
sign, and underneath the following lines
translated from a mediaeval quatrain by
some not very conscientious scholar who
has imported Caesar, stag and all, into the
West of England :

." When Julius Caesar landed here,
I was then a little deer,
When Julius Caesar reigned King,

44 Old Country Inns

Round my neck he put this ring ;
Whoever shall me overtake,
Spare my life for Caesar's sake ! "

But when we begin to inquire into the
actual title-deeds of the White Hart inns,
we find ourselves in the midst of movements
of far deeper import than the outburst of
national loyalty on the signboards. The
story of a great mediaeval fiscal policy ; the
birth of home manufactures ; the struggle
of the towns for municipal rights. The sign
of the White Hart marks a turning-point in
the great social and industrial revolution
which was to bring to the great body of
Englishmen prosperity and freedom.

No country could compare with England,
during the Middle Ages, for the production
of wool. From the twelfth century onwards
wool was almost the only export and the
principal source of wealth for landowners
and farmers. So important a trade was
bound to receive the attention of Chancellors
in search of a new tax. Accordingly, early in
the thirteenth century, a system was devised
by which no wool could possibly be exported
until it had contributed its quota to the royal
treasury. Wool, as well as some other raw
materials, such as skins, lead and tin, had to

The Rise of the Towns 45

be brought for sale to an appointed place
called the Staple, where the trade was under
the superintendence of a special corporation
whose seal must appear on every bale. The
Staple was at first fixed at Bruges, the chief
seaport of the Flemish cloth manufacturer,
but during the reign of Edward III, it was
moved to England, and then finally, in 1390,
established at Calais. Thither every dealer
was obliged to carry his bales by certain
approved routes, through Boston, London,
Sandwich, Winchester, or Southampton, and
these towns became subsidiary centres of the
Staple. Staple Inn, in Holborn, was an inn
for merchants of the Staple before it became
a resort for the lawyers. In the end the
merchants of the Staple grew into a ring of
powerful monopolists, who controlled prices,
regulated times of sale, and even secured the
carrying trade in their own hands. The sale
of English sheep abroad, either for breeding
or for shearing, was also forbidden under very
heavy penalties.

All these vexatious formalities in getting
his wool to Calais, and the rapacity of the
merchants of the Staple, disgusted the English
farmer. As early as 1258 Simon de Montfort
urged that England ought to be a centre of

46 Old Country Inns

manufacture, and not merely a source of raw
material. Edward III, while with one hand
consolidating the power of the monopolists
who controlled the Staple, on the other hand
stimulated the obvious remedy. He invited
Flemish weavers to settle in this country.
By the end of his reign the whirring sound
of the looms might be heard all through
Norfolk, Essex and Kent. From a country
of farmers which exported wool, England
was soon to be transformed into a country
of manufacturers who exported cloth. The
sale of wool at the Staple dwindled away,
while Yorkshire tweeds and Cotswold broad-
cloths were winning the preference for price
and quality in the most distant markets.

The commercial prosperity of England is
generally said to have been built up on the
industries arising out of the woolpack. But
in the fourteenth century capital was already
being found for the development of many
other enterprises. In 1307 there were com-
plaints about London fog, owing to the use of
coal as fuel. In the Sussex weald and the
Forest of Dean the iron trade was so busy that
it was necessary to import a considerable
portion of the ore from Sweden and Spain.
The excellence of English guns, it is said,

The Rise of the Towns 47

contributed largely to the victories of Henry V
in France.1 The lost art of brickmaking
was reintroduced by the Flemings. Cheaper
labour and materials induced copper-founders
from Dinant and bell-founders from Liege
to transfer their trades hither. Instead of
bringing beer from Prussia the shipmasters
found it more profitable to export Maidstone
ales into Flanders.

Meanwhile, the towns from a position of
semi-servitude had been step by step attain-
ing to liberty, wealth and the political
franchise. London led the way owing to the
presence of merchants from Rouen and Caen
who settled there immediately after the Con-
quest and took the position of a governing
class prepared to treat with the King for
privileges. The steps by which the various
boroughs secured their rights of self-govern-
ment, free speech in free meeting and equal
justice would need several volumes to des-
cribe. They were won by steady solid perse-
verance, by customs allowed to grow up
unnoticed during the quarrels between the
barons and the royal favourites, by a direct
bargain with the lord of the manor, or in a

1 J. R. Green. " Town Life in the Fifteenth Century,"
I, 55.

48 Old Country Inns

few instances by less ingenuous methods.
Most of the towns, like London, were situated
on the royal demesne. With these the work
was comparatively easy. Secure of his ulti-
mate supremacy, and indifferent to small
sources of power, the king was generally
willing to surrender local claims for a fixed
payment in money. A Corporation was a better
security for the payment of dues than petty
officers given to peculation. Accordingly,
from the reign of Henry I, charters were granted
giving a progressive degree of liberty, although
until the reign of John the King retained
the nomination of the portreeve or mayor.

The feudal baron was not so willing to part
with his supremacy. But the nobility were
rapidly becoming poorer ; and the issue of the
battle was ultimately with the strong. Either
the powerful merchants' guild, returning un-
wearied to the fray after each rebuff, by its
steady dogged agitation ended in forcing a
compromise, or else the traders deserted the
place and let it dwindle away into a poverty-
stricken village. Sometimes an ancient
charter was alleged to exist and prescriptive
rights claimed before a commission in the
King's Courts ; and the longest purse could
fee the most persistent counsel.

The Rise of the Towns 49

Much less hopeful were the prospects of
citizens whose lord was a religious house.
The monasteries were rich, well acquainted
with forms of law, and as trustees not justified
in parting with their hereditary assets.
Hitherto promoters of progress, the monks
now began, to be regarded as a stumbling-
block on the path towards freedom. And
from this arose the smouldering hatred of the
monasteries that underlies so much of the
literature of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. During the great revolt of the
villeins the monasteries and bishops' palaces
on the route of the insurgents were all burnt
and sacked by the mob. At St. Albans,
Cirencester, and even in the cinque port of
Romney, the struggles of the townsfolk to
burst their thraldom were endless and always
futile. It was organised force in conflict
with organised authority, and the result was
that the latter prevailed. At Coventry the
motto of the two contending bodies was
divide et impera. The Merchant Guild became
the Guild of the Holy Trinity and shared
with the Corpus Christi Guild (of which the
Prior and other Churchmen were members)
all authority in the town, nominating the
Mayor and all the important officials.

50 Old Country Inns

Simon de Montfort, " the father of English
liberty," was the first to recognise the growing
importance of the commercial middle classes
by summoning two burgesses from each of
the town boroughs to his Parliament in 1264,
and their presence was treated as a matter of
course in subsequent Parliaments, though
they formed a comparatively insignificant
factor. In the reign of Edward III, when the
Knights of the Shire associated with them
to form the future House of Commons, their
growing wealth and ability to make terms
with the King as a condition of granting
supplies was recognised and a marked increase
of parliamentary activity commenced. Their
" petitions " became on the assent of the Crown
Statutes of the Realm, and henceforward the
Lower House was to initiate nearly all
legislation.

And now we can return to our White Hart
inns. They were the first inns to be built by
the corporations, or at least under their
licence. Secure in the possession of their
charter, proud of their ever-increasing com-
merce, hopeful of the future privileges and
reforms that were likely to be obtained by
their burgesses in Parliament, the towns
began to provide new inns of a superior kind

The Rise of the Towns 51

for the merchants who came regularly to their
markets. They were held direct from the
King, and to the reigning king alone they
looked for any future marks of favour. Hence
these inns almost invariably bear the badge

The Swan, Felstead

of the reigning king. When Richard II was
deposed the White Hart gave place to the
White Swan of Henry IV, and this latter is
nearly as common on the signboards. Barons
and earls might dispute and make war on
one another as to who was the sovereign de
jure ; the concern of the towns was with
the king de facto. The Commons regarded

52 Old Country Inns

each change of dynasty from Plantagenet to
red rose and from red rose to white rose
with the complacency of the Vicar of Bray.
The old aristocracy ruined themselves and
died out amid these political disputes ; mean-
while the burghers grew rich and their
posterity formed the nucleus of a new aris-
tocracy of English race and of more patriotic
instincts.

The signboards tell the same tale all
through the fifteenth century. The Antelope
of Henry VI, the White Lion of Edward IV,
and the White Boar of Richard III each take
their turn. The changes they represented
meant little more than incidental gossip to
the burghers. All the real life of the citizens
was in their home and trade, in their craft
guilds, in treaties with neighbouring towns,
or in the little controversies of the town
council.

We know only a few incidental details
about the internal comforts of the White
Hart inns. The majority of the guests
slept in large rooms, on couches or wooden
bedsteads. Only a few very important gran-
dees were accorded a private camera. The
bed was a long sack -like mattress stuffed
with straw or hay ; great folk would carry

The Rise of the Towns 53

with them their own bed on their journeys.
Most people lay in their ordinary clothes on
the bed, though counterpanes and linen were
just coming into use. Carpets were chiefly
employed like tapestry for hanging on the
walls and diminishing the continual draughts.
The women had their special apartments ;
the serving men slept on the rushes of the
hall, while the grooms were left to make the
best of stable and barn. Meals were taken
at fixed hours, at a long movable table on tres-
tles in the hall, guests and servants sitting
down together, but placed according to rank.
Some of the dishes would not commend
themselves to fastidious moderns, but at
least, there was never any lack of good
wholesome fare ; loaves, joints and meat
pasties all on a gargantuan scale. Wines
of British as well as foreign extraction
competed with the nut brown ale. Essex
was in those days the vineyard of England.
How much we have fallen off in the
capacity of our stomachs from the good
old times of open-air life and daily exercise
on horseback may be judged from the
following allowance of provisions granted
to Lady Lucy, one of the maids of honour
to Queen Katherine of Aragon :

54 Old Country Inns

" Breakfast — A chine of beef, a loaf, a gallon of ale.
Luncheon — Bread and a gallon of ale.
Dinner — A piece of boiled beef, a slice of roast meat,

a gallon of ale.
Supper — Porridge, mutton, a loaf, and a gallon of ale."

When the Warden of Merton College
travelled with two of his fellows and four
servants from Oxford to Durham in 1331,
the season being winter, their average bill
was 2d. for beds for the whole party, or for
the servants alone, one halfpenny ; at the
town inns of fifty years later the price of a
bed was one penny, and the increased com-
fort warranted the higher charge.1 The
private rooms, instead of being numbered,
received names according to the subject
portrayed on the tapestry hangings. This
custom continued in old-fashioned inns up
to quite recent times, and has served as the
basis of stage humour of a sort :
SCENE. A Country Inn.

Timothy. What rooms have you disengaged, Waiter ?

Waiter . Why sir, there's the Moon : but I forget—
there's a man in that.

Timothy. Eh ! A man in the Moon ! Oh then we'll
not go there.

Waiter. There's the Waterloo Subscription, Sir ; that's
full — there's the Pope's Head; that's empty, etc., etc. 2

1 At the George Inn, Winchester, in Elizabeth's reign, the charge
for a feather bed for one night was one penny ; for a dinner of
" Beef, mutton, or pigge," sixpence.
1 "All at Coventry." By W. T. Montcrieff.

The Rise of the Towns 55

In the minute books of the Grey Coat
Hospital, a very valuable religious educa-
tional charity, we come across a rather
startling entry. On Epiphany, 1698,
" After prayers and sermon in church, the
children and their parents dined in Hell."
Heaven and Hell were two public dining
rooms adjoining the old Palace of West-
minster, and so named either from the
hangings or other pictorial decoration.

3— (8844)

CHAPTER V

THE CRAFT GUILDS AND TRADERS' INNS

OF the writing of books about the mediaeval
guilds there seems to be no end, and each
new contribution serves to mystify rather
than to throw light on the difficulties of the
subject. From the earliest times, it was
an inherent tendency of the Teutonic races
to combine and form guilds. There were
guilds for the building of bridges, for the
relief of poor pilgrims, and for almost every
imaginable purpose, ranging from the organisa-
tion of a municipality to the Saxon " frith-
gild," which undertook the punishment of
thieves and the exacting of compensation
for homicides. As to the craft guilds of the
Middle Ages, some are content to regard
them as trade unions, others as similar to
our modern clubs, and a third class of writers
assert that they were purely religious. As a
matter of fact, they were capable of becoming
all three in turn.

No doubt the original motive of these
guilds was to create a monopoly and artificial

56

The Graft Guilds and Traders1 Inns 57

control over the particular trade, and also
to obtain that security which only an organ-
ised association is able to give against tyranny
and corruption. They comprised all ranks,
wage-earners, manufacturers, and merchants.
The weakness of such a body was that there
was no community of interests as regards
the internal economy of the industry. That
is to say, the merchants and masters would
not be induced to improve the position of
their apprentices or to raise the wages of
journeymen. The only common ground
would lie in attempts to assert the interests
of the trade at large against the whole body
of consumers, or against competing trades.
On the other hand, the Corporation itself
was originally a guild which had succeeded
in obtaining a charter and thus becoming
the administrative authority. It would
regard with anxiety the creation of other
bodies which might follow in its footsteps
and become very dangerous rivals. Charters,
indeed, were in the twelfth century being
bought from the King, which rendered fra-
ternities dependent for their existence on
the royal will alone. The weavers of London
lived in a quarter by themselves, with their
own courts and raised their own taxes,

58 Old Country Inns

suffering no intrusion from the City officials.
Only by an expensive process of boycotting
was this abuse brought to an end. When
once the municipalities perceived their
danger, they proceeded ruthlessly to reduce
the craft guilds into subjection and to limit
the purposes for which they were permitted
to combine.

And this brings us to the second period
in the history of the craft guilds, when we
find each trade forming itself into an associa-
tion to provide a burial fund for its deceased
members, masses for the repose of their
souls, and to organise a solemn procession
and miracle play on the annual festival.
Behind the religious association the union
for trade purposes remained. When the
secular powers of the craft guild were more
clearly defined, in the fifteenth century,
under the style of a company, the observance
of the mystery was often allowed to fall into
desuetude. The Companies became mere
trustees of the endowments belonging to
the religious guilds and treated with equani-
mity the abolition of these trusts at the
Reformation.

In the third period the craft guilds as
Companies became a useful adjunct of the

The Graft Guilds and Traders' Inns 59

Corporation, protecting the community from
overcharges, settling disputes in the trade,
and generally forming courts of reference
on technical matters. The City companies
of to-day, though not under any compulsion
to do so, still occasionally render service
of a kindred nature. The work of the
Plumbers' Company, a few years ago, in
arranging for the examination and regis-
tration of plumbers will be called to mind ;
the Apothecaries' Company has also done
good service. Out of the guilds of the Holy
Trinity at Hull and at Deptford has grown
the Corporation of Trinity House, that
wealthy philanthropic body that builds light-
houses, licenses pilots, and ministers in
various ways to the welfare of our merchant
shipping.

At Headcorn and Cranbrook, in the Weald
of Kent, and again at Lavenham and Sudbury,
in Suffolk, may be seen many beautiful
examples of the halls of the craft guilds
now derelict and converted to less noble
purposes. Part of the King's Head at Ayles-
bury is supposed by experts to have been
anciently a Guildhall. We shall refer more
fully to this building in another chapter*

We have seen that the guilds afforded

60 Old Country Inns

very few advantages to the wage-earners,
and according to the natural tendency of
all such bodies, they ended in becoming
aristocratic and exclusive. They were for
a long period masters of the labour of
the country, preventing any attempts at
strikes, and securing that all disputes as to
the rate of pay should be settled by the
arbitration of their own warden. Vainly
the serving -men of the Saddlers strove to
form a guild of their own on the harmless
pattern of a religious body with their own
festival at Our Lady of Stratford-le-Bow.
It was complained of them that in thirteen
years their hire had more than doubled the
ordinary rate, and their meetings were ruth-
lessly repressed. The May-Day festival of
the Journeymen Shearers in Shrewsbury
was suppressed for a similar reason.1

Only one refuge remained for the oppressed
/ workmen — the inn, which for centuries was
to be the place where he could hold these
more or less illegal meetings with his com-
rades. In the houses of call for artisans,
the workers discussed their grievances,
hatched conspiracies and strikes, or devised

1 Green. " Town Life in the Fifteenth Century,"
II, 126.

The Graft Guilds and Traders' Inns 61

less drastic methods for the betterment of
their condition. At Kidderminster there is an
inn called The Holy Blaise, after the patron
of weavers ; another, Bishop Blaise, exists in
the heart of the City of London in New Inn
Yard. The Boar's Head, by the way, was
a commonly accepted emblem of St. Blaise.

Bricklayers' Arms, Caxton

Many St. Crispins or Jolly Crispins survive
to represent the shoemaker. St. Hugh was
another patron of the shoe trade, and there
was once a St. Hugh's Bones in Clare Market.
Simon the Tanner is an old house in Long

62 Old Country Inns

Lane, Bermondsey. A later age absurdly re-
named inns frequented by the labouring class
as The Weavers' Arms, Carpenters' Arms,
Bricklayers' Arms, etc., etc. These inns, a
common occurrence in every large town, are
often of old foundation, and incidentally
commemorate the fact that in the public-
house it was that the wage-earners first learnt
the art of combination for their own better-
ment. Here the earliest trade unions found
a welcome and a home, with which many of
their successors are still content. The club
room at the inn was the cradle of the Friendly
Societies. The Freemasons have given name
to a whole series of taverns. All the numer-
ous and generally well managed benefit
Societies on the pattern of the Foresters,
Hearts of Oak and Oddfellows owe their very
existence to the public-house.

It was anciently the custom for workmen to
be paid at the nearest inn, and out of this,
during the bad period at the beginning of the
nineteenth century grew a very serious abuse.
Those to whom was entrusted the duty of
engaging and paying various forms of pre-
carious and unskilled labour, such as coal
whippers and porters, found it profitable to
become owners of public-houses where the

The Craft Guilds and Traders1 Inns 63

unfortunate men were kept waiting for a job
which was generally awarded to the individual
whose score was the largest. When the men
returned from their work they were expected
to spend a considerable portion of their earn-
ings for the good of the house. The Truck
Act of 1843 put an end to this heartless
scandal.

The Woolpack and Fleece were, of course,

Golden Fleece, South Weald

the signs of inns frequented by the merchants
who came to buy wool. At Guildford all the
alehouses were at one time required to exhibit

64 Old Country Inns

a Woolpack as a token of the leading com-
modity in the town. There is a very fine old
Golden Fleece Inn at South Weald in Essex,
broad-fronted and roomy, Jacobean in style,
but fallen sadly from its old estate since the
coach traffic ceased on the Ipswich road.

The Three Kings was anciently the sign of
the mercers, because in the Middle Ages linen
thread materials brought from Cologne had
the highest reputation, and were probably
stamped either with the figures of the three
wise men, or with three crowns. But the
Three Crowns are asserted to be more com-
monly emblematic of the three kingdoms of
England, Scotland and Ireland. The Golden
Ball was another mercers' sign, from the arms
of Constantinople, which was formerly the
centre of the silk trade. The Elephant and
Castle was the crest of the Cutlers' Company.
However, the Elephant and Castle, at the
corner of Newington Causeway, has a quite
different origin. The skeleton of an elephant
was discovered while digging a gravel-pit near
this spot in 1714. Elephants in mediaeval
heraldry were invariably represented as carry-
ing a solidly-built castle, a traveller's exagger-
ation of the Indian palanquin. The Lion and
Castle indicated a dealer in Spanish wines,

The Graft Guilds and Traders1 Inns 65

because sherry casks were stamped with the
brand of the Spanish arms.

Foresters resorted for company to the Green
Man, and the survival of many old taverns
of that name reminds us that there were
numerous forests in the neighbourhood of
London. The Northwood, or Norwood, ex-
tended from near the Green Man at Dulwich
to Croydon, where there is another Green Man
Inn. The Green Man at Leytonstone stands
on the verge of Epping Forest. Wherever
a painted sign exists on one of these houses it
generally represents either an archer or a
forester clad in Lincoln green.

The Two Brewers does not denote that the
ale of the two rival tradesmen is on sale, but
the manner in which beer was anciently
carried about before the invention of brewers'
drays. Two porters are shown bearing the
precious barrel slung between them on a poles

Last of all to be mentioned among the inn .
which remind us of disappearing occupations
are those found usually where the ancient
green ways join the main roads to London.
The drover and his herd of tired wild-eyed
cattle is no longer a feature on the roadside.
It is cheaper and more convenient to send
oxen to market by cattle-train. But the long

66 Old Country Inns

green lanes, touching here and there a market
town, extend through the Eastern and Midland
counties, right up to the North of England.
Lonely and deserted, practicable only by the
pedestrian or the rider of a sure-footed pony,
scarcely ever used except by the county
officials, whose duty it is to maintain the
right of way, they remain as an ideal hunting
ground for the naturalist. When the explorer,
tired and hungry after many miles of rough
journeying, finds shelter at the Drover's Call,
Butcher's Arms, or Jolly Drovers, the purpose
of these old half-forgotten by-roads is made
clear to him, and he can meditate during his
hour of rest on the changes which fifty years
have made in the methods of transport.

JftC

1

Porch, Chalk Church, Kent

CHAPTER VI

CHURCH INNS AND CHURCH ALES

WE had occasion a year or two ago to visit
a small country town where several public-
houses were scheduled previous to being closed
under the Licensing Act. It was impossible
to defend the continuance of the licences.
The high road which ran through the lower
part of the town was well provided with inns
for the passing traveller. These condemned
inns, nine or ten in number, were all in a side
street leading to the church at the top of the
hill. We inquired of a local antiquary, an
enthusiast on the subject of inns, whether he
could account for the existence of so many
in a situation apparently ill-adapted for a
prosperous trade, and received a surprising
explanation.

" They loved God in those days/1 muttered
the old gentleman, with a sigh of regret, " and
loving God each man loved his brother also.
In the church they learnt the mysteries of
the Kingdom of Heaven ; the public-house
gave them the opportunity of realising the

67

68 Old Country Iniis

Kingdom of Heaven in the practice of
brotherly love. It is a survival of the early
Christian Agape. ' Exercise hospitality one
to another/ says the Apostle — for this is the
full meaning of Trpoa-\a^dvecrOai in Romans
xv, 7. In the good old days men did not
go into a public-house to drown their wits in
gin, but to buy each other good wholesome
ale in Christian fellowship. And as every
man went to church — of course, there had to
be many alehouses ! >J

We have since discovered a less picturesque
though much more plausible origin of these
superfluous inns which will be given in an-
other chapter. Nevertheless, allowing for our
good friend's flamboyant enthusiasm, there
is an element of truth in his contention.
Wherever there is a church we may be certain
of finding an old inn hard by. In pre-
reformation times the Church, while not
exactly countenancing the alehouse, looked
not sourly on drinking customs when indulged
in with discretion. The training of the char-
acter in self-restraint is a great ideal of the
Catholic Church. The alternation of festival
and fast is one integral feature of the process.
Fasting alone is insufficient. Continual absti-
nence results in self -mutilation ; the appetite

Church Inns and Church Ales 69

is merely distorted thereby. It is a great
secret of the higher life that where there is
no temptation there can be no victory. And
so the Church enjoined on our forefathers the
duty of feasting heartily and fasting con-
scientiously each in their due season. A
great doctor of the Church gave the maxim
that to be fasting after the fifth hour of a
holy-day was to be ipso facto excommunicate.
Before inns became common the parish
clergy were expected to entertain travellers.
It must be borne in mind that until the
thirteenth century many of the secular priests
were married men. The Rolls of Parliament
for 1379 contain a complaint that owing to the
non-residence of the clergy this duty of
affording shelter to benighted wayfarers was
in danger of lapsing. In our own boyhood
it was still the traditional custom for travellers
in remote districts to put up at the rectory,
and this may help to account for the un-
necessary size of rectories in sparsely popu-
lated country parishes. But obviously the
unmarried priest of the fifteenth century
found it more convenient to all parties when
an inn was built on his glebe, where it would
be more or less under his control, and he could
be answerable for its good conduct.

70 Old Country Inns

Again, parishioners from outlying districts
were expected on high festivals to attend
morning and afternoon services at their
mother church. In licensing a chapel at
Smallhythe in 1509 " on account of the bad-
ness of the roads and the dangers which the
inhabitants underwent from the waters being
out/' Archbishop Warham was careful to
stipulate that the people of Smallhythe were
not thereby released from their duties at the
parish church of Tenterden. Some accom-
modation was necessary where those coming
from a distance could rest and have their
midday meal during the interval between
High Mass and Vespers. At Lurgashall, in
Sussex, there is a very ancient closed porch of
wood extending the whole length of the South
aisle which local tradition declares to have
been built for this express purpose. Perhaps
also the large parvise to the west of the tower
at Boxley, like in form to the antechapels in
the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, was a
shelter of this kind. Mr. Baring-Gould thinks
that the deep porches in the French cathe-
drals were intended to shelter the peasants
during the midday hours. But by the
fifteenth century the increase in the standard
of comfort would demand an inn, rather

Church Inns and Church Ales 71

than these exposed and draughty places for
shelter.

Church Ales were a special institution of the
mediaeval Church to the intent that no par-
ishioner by reason of poverty should lack the
means of feasting to his heart's content on the
greater holy-days ; all were to assemble and
make merry together. " In every parish/1
says Aubrey, in the introduction to his
" Natural History of Wiltshire/* there was a
Church House, to which belonged spits,
crocks, and other utensils for dressing provi-
sions. Here the housekeepers met. The young
people were there, too, and had dancing,
bowling, shooting at butts, etc., the ancients
sitting gravely by and looking on. All things
were civil and without scandal/' Whitsun-
tide was the great feast of early summer before
haymaking began, and so these feasts were
popularly known as Whitsun-Ales, but Easter
and Christmas were not forgotten. From an
old Breton legend we learn incidentally that
it was customary for the three masses of Christ-
mas to be said consecutively by anticipa-
tion, after which all adjourned for a gorgeous
feast in the neighbouring Church House.
Sometimes two parishes united for the cele-
bration of the Church Ale. In Dods worth's

72

Old Country Inns

manuscripts there is an old indenture
preserved, an agreement between the parish-
ioners of Elveston and Okebrook, in Derby-

Church House, Penshurst

shire, to brew four ales, and every ale of one
quarter of malt between Easter and the feast
of St. John the Baptist ; every inhabitant

Church Inns and Church Ales 73

of the two parishes to attend the several
ales. Charitable folks bequeathed funds for
the maintenance of these parish banquets on
particular festivals.

Just above the western door of Chalk
Church, near Gravesend, squats carved in
stone a grotesque goblin figure, cross-legged
and grinning with a most jovial expression as
he grasps a flagon of ale. Charles Dickens in
his latter years never omitted to stop and
have greeting with this comical old monster.
Now, this sculpture commemorates a give ale,
bequeathed by William May, in 1512, that
there should be " every year for his soull,
an obit, and to make in bread six bushells of
wheat, and in drink ten bushells of malt, and
in cheese twenty pence, to give to poor people
for the health of his soull."

After the Reformation the Church Ales
were continued, chiefly in order that the
Churchwardens might by the sale of the
liquor secure funds for the repair of the fabric.
"There were no rates for the poor in my
grandfather's days/' says Aubrey. " But for
Kingston St. Michael (no small parish) the
Church Ale of Whitsuntide did the business *"
Abuses rapidly crept in. Stubbs, the author
of the " Anatomie of Abuses/' complains in

74

Old Country Inns

1583, that the ales were kept up for six weeks
on end, or even longer. In the West of Eng-
land instances are related of the South aisle
of the church being filled with beer casks and
men busy supplying all comers. The sale

The Punch Bowl, High Easter
of liquor went on during morning service
greatly to the disturbance of the officiating
minister. Bishops' injunctions, ecclesiastical
canons, and orders of the justices fulminated
vainly against the degenerated Church Ales.
Not till the time of the Commonwealth were
they finally abolished.

Church Inns and Church Ales 75

Bishop Hobhouse traces the growth of the
Church House into a regular tavern at Tintin-
hull in Somersetshire. First , there was a
small bakehouse for the making of the pain
benit. In time this had developed into a
bakery supplying the whole neighbourhood
with bread. From brewing ale for Church
festivals, the brewhouse undertook the
regular sale of malt liquor ; and it was a very
profitable business for the churchwardens;
so that municipal trading was not quite
unknown in the olden time.

The only examples of an undoubted Church
House that we have come across are the
" Church Loft " at West Wycombe, in Bucks,
and the exquisite half-timbered building
over the Lych Gate at Penshurst. The
Castle Inn at Hurst, in Berkshire, is tradi-
tionally known as the Church House. The
bowling-green behind this inn is one of the
best in England and of great antiquity.
There are many inns and other old houses
near churchyards which probably began their
career as Church Houses ; the half-timbered
" Priest house " at Langdon, in Essex, and the
long plastered and tiled tudor structure over
the porch at Felstead, opposite the Swan Inn,
and formerly used as the Grammar School,

76

Old Country Inns

may both be of this category. The Punch
Bowl at High Easter is actually in the church-
yard ; its interior framing — a marvellous
piece of joinery — and the richly-moulded
beams show it to have been built at the same

-J

The Punch Bowl, High Easter

time as part of the church, perhaps by the
same craftsmen. By the way, Mr. James
Stokes, the landlord for many years of the
Punch Bowly a worthy, good-hearted man,
was in size the nearest rival of Daniel Lambert
we ever met. His huge proportions were not
by any means due to indolent habits. He

Church Inns and Church Ales 77

was a thatcher by trade, and noted in the
district for his activity and skill.

In the absence of documents it is not easy
to discriminate between the Church Inn and
the Church House. Old inns near the church
bearing ecclesiastical names may be of either
origin, or may have served for both. The
Bell is very common all over England. It is
always found near the church, and the sign is
of the highest antiquity. Chaucer tells us
that the Tabard in Southwark was " juste by
the Belle." The Bell at Finedon,in North-
amptonshire, puts in a claim to be one of the
very oldest in the country, and the old Bell
Tavern which formerly stood in King Street,
Westminster, is mentioned in the expenses
of Sir John Howard, Jockey of Norfolk, in
1466. At the Bell, in Warwick Lane, died
the good Archbishop Leighton in 1684. " He
often used to say that if he were to choose a
place to die in, it should be an inn ; it looks
like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this
world was all as an inn, and who was weary
of the noise and confusion in it . . . . And
he obtained what he desired." 1

Not unusual in this situation is a Lamb Inn.
The Lamb at Eastbourne has a small but

1 " Burnet's Own Times," II, 426.

78 Old Country Inns

well-proportioned crypt, vaulted and groined.
There is a Lamb and Flag near the old parish
church at Brighton, Sudbury, and at Swindon ;
and a Lamb and Anchor in Bristol. These
owe their origin to a carving of the Agnus Dei,
but may sometimes point to a house of the
Knights Templars, for the Agnus Dei appeared
on their coat of arms. The Bleeding Heart
is an emblem of the five sorrowful mysteries
of the Rosary, and the Heart, generally found
as the Golden Heart, is in honour of the Blessed
Virgin. The Anchor is suggestive of a church
inn, but we have not been able to trace a
house bearing this sign to any very remote
period. At Hartfield, there is an Anchor Inn
close to the church, evidently ancient, and
having a delightful old-fashioned garden. It
was formerly occupied by a church institution
where the poor were fed and housed in return
for such labour as their age and skill would
permit, founded by the Rev. Richard Randes,
a rector of the parish some two hundred and
fifty years ago. The house contains evidence
of having existed long before this date.

At least one church has, by the vicissitudes
of time, become an inn ; the George Hotel at
Huntingdon, itself very old and picturesque,
enshrines in its cellars and lower walls all that

Church Inns and Church Ales 79

is left of St. George's Church. The stones of
St. Benedict's Church in the same town were
used two centuries ago in building the Barley
Mow Inn at Hartford, and some figures
and panelling may be seen in the tap-room
of the Queen's Head, close by where this
church stood. At the Old Red House, about
four miles north of Newmarket on the road
to Brandon, the bar-counter is formed out
of the rood-screen turned out of the neigh-
bouring church at a " Restoration " about
five-and -twenty years ago.

In a corner of Romford churchyard a
fifteenth-century chantry-house, founded by
Avery Comburgh, Squire of the Body to
Henry VI, and Under-Treasurer to Henry VII,
became after the Reformation the Cock and
Bell Inn. Through the kindness of Messrs.
Ind, Coope & Co., the present Bishop of
Colchester was enabled to regain possession
for religious uses, and after three hundred
and sixty years of alienation this building,
still possessing its original oak ceiling beams
and panelling has been converted into a
Church House for the parish, and a hall for
meetings, corresponding in style, has now
been added from the design of Sir Charles
Nicholson, Bart.

80 Old Country Inns

Among the pleasantest memories of a
pilgrimage to Walsingham, is that of a Sunday
spent at a little Suffolk village, where after
service Pastor and flock alike adjourned to
our inn for a half an hour's gossip. The old
custom would be difficult to restore nowadays,
but much of the social influence of the Church
over the labouring classes was lost when
rectors left off occupying, at least once a week,
the chair in the village inn parlour. For it
is not without good reason that church and
inn stand so frequently side by side. Each
ministers alike to the natural and common
needs of man, and each in its own way has
its lesson to teach us in the gospel of the
larger life. They have stood together
through the ages as a protest against the
wayward theories of man-made puritanism;
for they belong to the Commandment which
is "exceeding broad/'

CHAPTER VII

COACHING INNS

A HUNDRED years ago, everybody who had
occasion for inland travelling was perforce
obliged to use the road ; that is, unless he
preferred a canal boat or barge, and navigable
waters lay in the desired direction. Rich
people travelled in their private carriage with
four horses which were changed every few
miles at the posting-houses. Those without
means had to content themselves with carriers'
carts or the stage broad-wheeled waggons ; a
few resorted to dog-carts, then a tiny four-
wheeled contrivance actually drawn by dogs.
But the great majority of passengers were
conveyed in the coaches or mails. In 1825
it was calculated that no less than 10,000
persons were daily on the road in mail-coaches,
so closely timed that if a driver were to be
ten minutes late in arriving at an important
centre many corresponding services would be
seriously upset. The average speed, allowing
for changing horses, was about ten miles an
hour on the fast day coaches.

81

82 Old Country Inns

All this vast organisation had grown up
since the time of Queen Elizabeth, when the
coach was introduced from France by Fitz-
Alan, Earl of Arundel. Only in her old age
would this queen leave her horse for the
effeminate conveyance, and the Judges con-
tinued to ride on horseback to Westminster
Hall, almost until the Restoration. In the
year 1672, when there were only six stage-
coaches in daily running, a Mr. John Cresset,
of the Charterhouse, published a pamphlet
urging their suppression on the ground that
' These stage-coaches make gentlemen come
to London on every small occasion, which
otherwise they would not do, but upon
urgent necessity ; nay the convenience of
the passage makes their wives often come up,
who rather than come such long journeys on
horseback would stay at home. Then, when
they come to town, they must presently be
in the mode, get fine clothes, go to plays and
treats, and by these means get such a habit
of idleness and love of pleasure, as to make
them uneasy ever after/'

The coaches started on their journey each
morning and evening from great inn yards
surrounded by tiers of galleries one above
the other. Sometimes, as at the Bull and

Coaching Inns 83

Mouth in St. Martins le Grand, or the Oxford
Arms in Warwick Lane, there were four
stories of these galleries. It is not easy to
trace the various steps by which the plan of
the coaching inn was evolved from the
" corrall " of migrating tribes, who when rest-
ing for the night arranged their waggons
in a hollow square, with their cattle in the
centre. But the idea underlying the coaching
inn was a species of fortress entered only by
the great archway with massive doors strongly
barred at closing time. The bedchambers of
the guests all opened into the galleries over-
looking the yard. When an alarm was raised
each owner of waggons or cattle in the yard
could at once hurry out to the defence of his
property. Later on, the traveller would be
bound to hear the note of the guard's horn,
warning him that the coach in which he had
booked a place was preparing to start.

" Heads, heads, — take care of your heads ! "
is the cry as the Pickwick Club pass on the
top of the Rochester coach through the low
inn archway. " Terrible place — dangerous
work — other day — five children — mother —
tall lady eating sandwiches — forgot the arch
— crash — knock — children look round —
mother's head off — sandwich in her hand —

Yard of White Hart, St. Albans

Coaching Inns 85

no mouth to put it in — head of a family off —
shocking, shocking ! l3 And it was no inven-
tion of the ingenious Mr. Jingle — for the
accident actually happened at the White Hart
at St. Albans.

Just as the coaching system had reached
its highest perfection, the railway came and
the coach vanished — more suddenly than the
horse vehicle has disappeared from the Strand
with the advent of the taxi-cab and motor
omnibus. The landlord of the coaching inn
and the posting-house found his occupation
gone almost as abruptly as the guard and
driver. Gone are all the coaching inns of
London, although their names survive as
receiving offices of the railway carriers. In
country towns on the main roads, like Sitting-
bourne or Godalming, huge forlorn wrecks
present their face to the roads converted
into shops or tenements. Some of them con-
tinue to maintain a precarious existence in
country villages like Buckden in Huntingdon-
shire, scarcely visited by the traveller of
to-day, whereas seventy years ago their vast
size was often insufficient to accommodate
the daily arrivals of guests. They linger on
in the hope that motorists may bring them
a new popularity. Others, tired of empty

86

Old Country Inns

rooms and dwindling local trade have retired
into private life. At Caxton, on the old
North Road, the George, a very large inn of
a lonely country village, is now a comfortable
private residence, and the old gateway arch
would hardly be recognized in the French
window opening on the front garden.

Coach Gallery at the Bull, Long Melford

Gone are the old galleried yards. We do
not know of one complete instance, except the
little disused Coach and Horses in York Street,
Westminster, which is neither large nor beau-
tiful. Fragments of galleries exist at the old

Coaching Inns 87

George Inn in the Borough, where they are in
several stories ; at the George at Huntingdon ;
the Golden Lion at St. Ives, and the New Inn
at Gloucester ; but the finest remaining gallery
is at the Bull at Dartford. The Bull at Long
Melford owns a glazed gallery, running along
the side of the yard next the inn, said to have
served to facilitate the loading of luggage on
the coaches.

But in provincial towns the coaching inn
is not quite left desolate ; it is the place of
departure and arrival for the carrier's van.
One need only search any local directory to
discover the enormous number of these con-
veyances and the various inns from which they
start. The rustic still prefers this method of
travel to any other, and if the tourist is not
in a hurry the box seat of a carrier's cart is
the ideal place from which to study rural
affairs. The carrier knows everybody in the
district and he is often a dry kind of philoso-
pher, if not an archaeologist or naturalist.
Win his heart and he will divulge unexpected
secrets, besides securing for you the most
comfortable night's lodging. His recom-
mendation will prove a passport admitting
into every grade of village society.

When the world proves unkind, when the

7— (2244)

88 Old Country Inns

loneliness and disappointments of life press
hard upon you — if Fortune has dealt you a
humiliating rebuff — then, if you have a few
shillings left, one night spent in an old way-
side coaching inn will brace your system up
and give you heart to face your troubles once
more with a new courage. The world you
have left may have despised you. Within the
walls of this old hostelry, landlord, waiter,
chambermaid, exist only to obey your lightest
whim. You are the luminary round which
this little world revolves — the " gentleman
in the parlour." As Washington Irving so
well puts it : "To a homeless man there is a
momentary feeling of independence as he
stretches himself before an inn fire ; the arm-
chair is his throne, the poker is his sceptre,
and the little parlour his undisputed empire/'
If you condescend to join the company in the
tap-room, still further honour awaits you.
Your pronouncements on things temporal
or things eternal have acquired an acknow-
ledged value ; your opinion is invited and
universally deferred to ; and the oldest
inhabitant will for your special benefit invent
a new series of reminiscences. In short, you
will feel the truth of all that Dr. Johnson has
laid down on the subject : "At a tavern

Coaching Inns

there is a general freedom from anxiety. You
are sure you are welcome ; and the more noise
you make, the more trouble you give, the more
good things you call for, the welcomer you are.

The White Hart, Witham

No servants will attend you with the alacrity
which waiters do, who are incited by the
prospects of an immediate reward in pro-
portion as they please. No, sir ; there is

90 Old Country Inns

nothing which has been contrived by man by
which so much happiness is produced as by a
good tavern or inn/'

A few minutes' gossip with the landlord
after closing time, and you sink to rest in the
depth of a feather bed, which removes the
last vestiges of the care that has beset you.
Early in the morning you rise refreshed and
vigorous, ready after a walk round the old-
fashioned garden to devour unlimited supplies
of ham and eggs washed down by coffee.
It is only in real old coaching inns that they
possess the secret of brewing old English
coffee — a beverage that owes nothing to the
poisonous intoxicating berry of Arabia,
discovered by the brothers Shirley. We
believe it is manufactured by roasting and
grinding some species of scarlet runner. As
a breakfast drink it is unequalled. This
coffee is the last of a series of exhilarating
experiences before you go your way rejoicing
and awake to all the graces of life. The bill
will not be exorbitant — that is, if you have
been reasonable in your demands — and the
landlord contemplates with pleasure your
return on a future occasion.

We love the coaching inn, not only as the
home of practical good cheer, but for the

Coaching Inns 91

romantic memories that cling to it. Scarcely
one of them but has its story of the eloping
couple, whose chaise slipped out at the back
gate just as the heroine's father alighted to
make inquiries at the front door ; the details
vary, but the lovers always escape in the nick
of time with the connivance of Boniface.
In a corner of the gallery of one old inn near
Huntingdon, a narrow door is shown, fitting
so exactly that when closed no person except
those in the secret could trace it. Here some
Dick Turpin or Claude Duval might lie in wait
and peep over the balcony to choose his prey
among the passengers stopping for the night ;
or find safe hiding from the Bow Street
runners. Romance easily gathered around
the journey by coach. Whereas a railway
acquaintance ends when the passengers each
go his or her own way from the arrival
platform, the companions on the coach-top
met again in the coffee-room, and might re-
new their intimacy at breakfast next morning.
Between London and York there was ample
time and opportunity for any suitable young
couple to arrive at a good understanding
with one another.

None of the coaching inns had a more
remarkable history than the Castle Inn at

92 Old Country Inns

Marlborough. Built by Francis, Lord Sey-
mour, in the reign of Charles II from the
reputed designs of Webb, Inigo Jones* pupil
and son-in-law, this sumptuous manor-house
was the favourite residence of the Seymour
family. During its occupation by Frances,
Countess of Hertford, and afterwards Duchess
of Somerset, in the early years of the
eighteenth century, many of the leading wits
and scholars of the age were invited here.
Dr. Watts, the hymn-writer, James Thomson,
author of " The Seasons/' and Elizabeth
Rowe are all said to have composed their lays
in the grottoes and extravagantly -arranged
gardens. When the house passed by marriage
into the hands of the Northumberland family
it was neglected as a superfluous residence,
and at last was let on lease as an inn to a
Mr. Cotterell. It was a broad-fronted stately
mansion, the most splendid and best ap-
pointed hotel in England during that age.
Before the grand portico no less than forty
coaches changed horses every day. The
service was magnificent. A dinner of twenty-
two covers could, if necessary, be served up
on silver.

The great Lord Chatham once stayed several
weeks at the Castle Inn. He was detained

Coaching Inns 93

there on his way back to London from
Bath, by a relapse of gout. His own suite
demanded twenty rooms, and the exigencies of
State during that time strained the resources
of the hotel to the utmost. He required the
whole staff, waiters, ostlers and boot-boys to
wear his livery. Mr. Stanley Weyman has
seized on just this critical moment, and has
woven round the Castle Inn the sweetest and
most enthralling of his many novels.

Other romances of real life are associated
with it. Driving through Marlborough and
halting at the Castle Inn, a certain Duke of
Chandos heard screams in the inn-yard.
Hastening to the spot he found a beautiful
girl being brutally beaten by an ostler. When
the Duke interfered, the ostler declared that
the young woman was his wife, and therefore
that he had an indefeasible right to beat her.
However, he was willing to compromise the
matter by selling his wife for £20. The Duke
paid the money, took the young woman away,
and, so we are told, afterwards made her
Duchess of Chandos.

Water has continued to flow under the
bridge that spans the Kennett for many
generations since Sir George Soane sat on the
parapet and wooed Julia, the college porter's

94

Old Country Inns

daughter. The old Bath Road knows no more
the coaches, curricles, wigs and hoops, hols-
tered saddles or the beaux and fine ladies,
and gentleman's gentlemen whose environ-
ment they were. We drift half-uncon-
sciously into the language of the novelist who

Old Coaching Inns, St Albans

has recalled these old days so vividly. The
Castle Inn is now part of Marlborough College,
founded in 1843. The Rose Inn at Woking-
ham has been refronted since " With pluvial
patter for refrain/' Gay, Pope, Swift and

Coaching Inns

95

Arbuthnot spent a rainy afternoon there vying
their verses in praise of Molly Moy, the fair
daughter of their host, who in spite of her
beauty lived to be an old maid of seventy.
Yet the wayfarer will discover that inn-
keeper^ daughters are as pretty as they were
in the days gone by. Romance is not the
exclusive property of any one generation.
Where youth and beauty are to be found
there lurks the romance ; and it belongs
as much to the inns of our own time as when
highwaymen, patches, puffs, wigs, and knee
breeches were the prevailing fashion.

Botolph's Bridge Inn, Romney Marsh

CHAPTER VIII

WAYSIDE INNS AND ALEHOUSES

WE have shown in previous chapters how the
old English inn grew up almost always under
some local authority — either the lord of the
manor, the monastery, or the parish — and its
conduct was regulated by legal enactments
from the reign of Henry II onwards. The
alehouse, on the contrary, might conduct its
business as its owner pleased, subject only
to the natural laws of supply and demand.
Every householder was free to brew either for
his own consumption or for sale, the one
condition being that his liquor was whole-
some and good. Among the crimes that in-
curred the punishment of the ducking-stool
in the city of Chester during Saxon times
was that of brewing bad beer.

In every manor there was held annually
the assize of bread and ale, the two staple
articles of diet which it was essential should
be pure and of good quality. " Bread, the
staff of life, and beer life itself," not unknown
as a motto on the signboards, is a saying that

96

Wayside Inns and Alehouses 97

has come down to us from a prehistoric period.
And modern science, as it seems, is inclined
to endorse the maxim. Good old-fashioned
wheaten and rye bread, made from the whole
flour from which only the coarser brans had
been sifted, built up the stamina of our fore-
fathers. Their chief drink was ale brewed
from barley or oaten malt. The small pro-
portion of alcohol served as a vehicle for the
organic phosphates necessary for the susten-
ance of strong nerves, while the ferment of the
malt helped to digest the starch granules in
the bread. Bread and ale are still the main
diet of our labouring classes — but alas !
stale, finely-sifted flour contains a very poor
allowance of gluten, and chemically pro-
duced saccharine is destitute of phosphates.
O, that our modern legislators would revive
the assize of bread and ale !

In Arnold's Chronicle, published by Pynson
about 1521, the following receipt for making
beer is given : " Ten quarters of malt, two
quarters of wheat, two quarters of oats and
eleven poundes of hoppys, to make eleven
barrels of single beer." Hops only came into
use about the reign of Henry VII ; pre-
viously ivy berries, heath or spice had been
used as a flavouring for ale. Leonard Maskall,

98 Old Country Inns

of Plumpton, a writer on gardening in the
reign of Henry VIII, has the credit of accli-
matising the hop -plant. He is also said to
have first introduced carp in the moat at
Plumpton Place. Hence the rhyme of which
many versions are given:

" Hops, heresy, carp and beer,
Came into England all in one year."

However, hops are mentioned as an adul-
terant in ale in a statute of Henry VI ; and
about the same time mention of beer occurs
in the accounts of Syon Nunnery, which were
kept in English.

Every inn, large or small, once possessed
its own brewhouse, and although wholesale
breweries were established about the time of
the Flemish immigration, at the end of the
fourteenth century, home-brewed ale was
commonly on draught fifty or sixty years ago.
The White Horse at Pleshy, that village that
boasts of knowing neither a teetotaller nor a
drunkard, relied entirely on its home-brewed
liquors up to within the last ten years, and
the apparatus wherein they were prepared
remains for the student of old methods to
examine.

Home-brewed ale is still more commonly
to be met with in some districts than many

Wayside Inns and Alehouses

99

suppose. Even in the neighbourhood of the
greatest brewery town in the world, Burton-
on-Trent, there are small inns which rely
upon their own brewing for the best of their
ale. There is a very old brewhouse at Derby ,

White Horse, Fleshy

at the Nottingham Castle Inn, into which
any passer-by may step from the street and
see, twice a week, a huge cauldron containing
about a hundred and twenty gallons, bubbling
and foaming in the corner. This brewhouse
dates from the sixteenth century, and is one

100 Old Country Inns

of the oldest buildings in the town ; the
Dolphin, whose licence dates from 1530,
being another and perhaps older inn in the
same neighbourhood.

A legion of brewers are named in Domesday
Book, mostly women, and manorial assizes
show a preponderance of the fairer sex.
The price of bread and ale was fixed by
statute in Henry Ill's reign, and it was the
business of the Ale-tester to see that the
measures were of standard capacity and
stamped with some recognized official mark.
Alehouses abounded everywhere, known by a
long pole surmounted by a tuft of foliage.
An Act of 1375 regulates the length of the
ale-stake at not more than seven feet over the
public way. The poles had a tendency to
become over long to the deterioration of the
timber structures from which they depended,
as well as danger to travellers passing on
horseback. At Guildford, and some other
cloth centres, the alehouses were required to
exhibit a woolpack for a sign.

These alehouses were of all sorts and sizes.
There was the humble hedgeside cottage,
looking like a mere sentry-box, illustrated in
the fourteenth century MS.1, where a hermit

1 MS. 10. E. IV.

Wayside Inns and Alehouses 101

is being entertained by an alewife with a very
large beer jug ; or the little alehouse on the
Watling Street, somewhere near Rainham,
where Chaucer's Pardoner dismounted to

" Drynke and by ten on a cake "
before commencing his tale ; or the establish-
ment by Leatherhead Bridge, where Elinour
Rummyng drove such a thriving trade, im-
mortalised by the poet Skelton. Some of
these larger alehouses were a cause of anxiety
to well-disposed people, and no doubt the
Church Houses were partly instituted with the
idea of inducing the faithful to spend their
time in a less disreputable manner. All kinds
of bad characters resorted to the alehouse.
Piers Plowman gives us a lurid picture of what
went on there. How the glutton going to be
shriven met the alewife and was induced to
spend the afternoon and evening with
" Tymme the tynkere and tweyne of his prentis
Hikke the hakeneyman and Hughe the nedeler,
Clarice of cokkeslane, and the clerke of the Cherche
Dawe the dykere and a doziene other ;
Sir Piers of Pridie and Peronelle of Flanders,
A ribidour, a ratonere, a rakyer of Chepe,
A ropere, a redynkyng, and Rose the disheres,
Gofrey of Garlekehithe, and Gryfin the Walshe,
And upholderes an hepe."

They drink deeply, joke coarsely and
quarrels ensue.

Old Country Inns

Finally the glutton is hopelessly intoxicated.
" He myghte neither steppe ne stande, er his staff e

hadde ;

And thanne gan he go, liche a glewmannes biche,
Somme tyme aside, and somme tyme arrere,
As who-so leyth lynes for to lache foules."

His wife and maid carry him home between
them and he lies helpless through Saturday
and Sunday, waking in bitter repentance at
having missed his duties. 1

From Skelton we learn how women came
to pledge their wedding rings and husbands'

clothes

" Because the ale is good."

Hence the necessity for an Act in Henry VI Fs
reign which empowered justices to close ale-
houses notorious for bad conduct, and later,
the first Licensing Act of 1552, requiring every
alehouse-keeper to obtain the licence of two
justices, and regulating the manner in which
the business is to be carried on. By an Act
of 1627, a fine of twenty-one shillings, or in
default a whipping, was inflicted on the keepers
of unlicensed alehouses, and on a second
conviction imprisonment for one month.
But none of these measures were enforced
throughout the country, and they were easily

*" Piers the Plowman." Text B., Passus V. ; Text
C., Passus VII.

Wayside Inns and Alehouses 103

evaded. Anyone was still free to sell ale in
booths at fair time, and many trades had by
custom the privilege to sell ale as a part of
their business : for example, barbers and black-
smiths, whose customers required entertain-
ment while waiting their turn. Two centuries
after the first Licensing Act, the nation was
still unconvinced on the subject of free trade
in liquor. In a report on an inquiry made
by Justices of the Peace for the County of
Middlesex in 1736, it was shown that within
the limits of Westminster, Holborn, The Tower
and Finsbury (exclusive of London and South-
war k), there were no less than 2,105 unlicensed
houses. Spirits were retailed by abbve
eighty other trades, particularly chandlers,
weavers, tobacconists, shoemakers, carpenters,
barbers, tailors, dyers, etc.

Barbers' shops* were once resorted to by
idlers, in order to pass away their time, and a
system of forfeits prevailed, nominally to
enforce order, but in practice to promote the
sale of drink. They are referred to in
" Measure for Measure. "

" Laws for all faults,

But laws so countenanced that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop
As much in mock as mark."

8— (2244)

104 Old Country Inns

Dr. Kenrick professes to have copied the
following list of forfeits in a shop near
Northallerton :

" RULES FOR SEEMLY BEHAVIOUR
First come, first served — then come not late ;
And when arrived keep your state ;
For he who from these rules shall swerve
Must pay the forfeits — so observe."

1.

Who enters here with boots and spurs,
Must keep his nook ; for if he stirs,
And gives with armed heel a kick,
A pint he pays for every prick.

2.

Who rudely takes another's turn,
A forfeit mug may manners learn.

3.

Who reverentless shall swear or curse,
Must lug seven farthings from his purse.

4.

Who checks the barber in his tale,
Must pay for each a pot of ale.

5.

Who will or cannot miss his hat
While trimming, pays a pint for that.

6.

And he who can or will not pay,
Shall hence be sent half trimm'd away,
For will he, nill he, if in fault,
He forfeit must in meal or malt.
But mark who is already in drink,
The cannikin must never clink."

Wayside Inns and Alehouses 105

As the restrictions on travelling graduA
ally disappeared many of the alehouses
developed into inns. As early as 1349, a
statute of Edward III, requiring those who
entertained travellers to be content with
moderate prices, recognizes the class of
Herbergers l or keepers of unlicensed hostelries.
And these inns as a class are deserving of
close study from the difficult problem of
determining their exact age. Some of them
may have existed as alehouses during the
Saxon period ; some may even stand on
the sites of Roman tabernae.

The oldest of all inn signs of this class is
the Chequers, found throughout England, but
especially in the neighbourhood of old Roman
roads. This sign is found on many houses at
Pompeii, and was throughout Europe the
common indication of a money-changer's
office. Hence our Court of the Exchequer,
which concerned itself with the national funds
and their collection. The chess-board was
the most primitive form of ready reckoner ;
and as the innkeeper was the person best
qualified to act as money-changer he readily
undertook the business. Small tradesmen

1 Literally " Harbourers." Compare the French
Auberge.

106 Old Country Inns

still send their assistants to the public-house
when they require to change a sovereign.
Many heraldic shields are painted with checks,
and Brand, in his " Popular Antiquities/'
suggested that the Chequers represent the

The Chequers, Redbourne

coat of arms of the Earls of Warrenne, on
the supposition that a member of this family
in the reign of Edward IV possessed the
exclusive right of granting licences. It is
absolutely certain that no such licence was
ever authorised. Nothing of the kind was
ever attempted before Sir Giles Mompesson in
the reign of James I ; but, of course, some
" chequers " may possibly have a heraldic
origin.

Chaucer's pilgrims put up at the Chequers
on the Hope (i.e., on the Hoop) at Canterbury,

Wayside Inns and Alehouses 107

and part of this inn still remains near the
Cathedral gate. There was also a Chequers
Inn at St. Albans, but it has now ceased to
exist. Either may have stood on the sites of
Roman inns ; but with these as with the
thatched Chequers on the Watling Street,
near Redbourne, or the Chequers at Loose or
Doddington, speculation is vain. Like the
needy knife-grinder, whose breeches were so
woefully torn during his drinking bout at an
inn bearing the same name : " Story ? God bless
you, I have none to tell, sir ! " is the universal
answer to all our inquiries for any historical
particulars beyond a century or two back.

Wayside inns needed no licence and were
usually carried on by a hosteller who com-
bined the occupation with that of farmer or
tradesman of some kind. Where any old
leases exist they are described merely as tene-
ments or farms. Thus the Dorset Arms at
Withyham, a very picturesque old shingled
and barge-boarded inn, appears as " Somers*
Farm/' Only by accident do we find the name
of one of the tenants, William Pigott, on a
list of Sussex tavern-keepers in the year 1636.

When the sign of the Three Horseshoes
occurs at the end of a rough difficult stretch
of road during which a horse would often lose

108 Old Country Inns

a shoe, it is probable that the inn grew up
side by side with a blacksmith's business,
even when the smithy no longer exists. In
a very lonely and exposed situation on the
Ermine Street, where the road to St. Ives

The Three Horseshoes near Papworth Everard

crosses near Papworth Everard, there is a
thatched inn bearing this sign and also known
as Kisby's Hut. At Lickfold, about six miles
from Haslemere, almost under the shadow of
Black Down, the highest hill in Sussex, there
is a cosy half-timbered Three Horseshoes,
which has come down to our time practically
unaltered since the day of its erection in
1642, and it is well worth examination. The
roads around it are liable to be flooded, and
it is a likely place for waggoners to pull up for
repairs. But when disentangling the riddles

Wayside Inns and Alehouses 109

of local history, we must not be led astray
with obvious explanations. Many old coats
of arms contain the three horseshoes. Indeed
there is one inn on a manor once belonging
to the Shelleys, where possibly the forgotten
shield of the older Kentish branch of the

The Horseshoes, Lick fold

family — the three escallops — has been
repainted as three horseshoes.

The Plough and Harrow are both primitive
emblems, and agricultural signs such as these
point to a very high antiquity. The Plough
at Kingsbury is supposed to be more than
eight hundred years old.

At the Upper Dicker in Sussex there is an
inn called the Plough, which is worth visiting
by motorists on their way to the Star at

110 Old Country Inns

Alfriston, especially as it will enable them to
get a glimpse of Michelham Priory on an
island in the Cuckmere close by. The tap-
room of this inn has a generously-planned
fireplace with an ancient fireback and dogs.
Up till quite recently it was the custom to
keep a fire constantly burning, and in the
hottest weather the warmth of this fire was
far from unwelcome owing to the thickness of
the outer walls. This tradition of the ever-
burning fire is a curious one, found in remote
districts, and pointing to a time when the
public-house was necessarily resorted to for
purposes of this kind. At the Chequers
Inn, Slapestones, near Osmotherly, in York-
shire, the hearth-fire has been burning un-
interruptedly for at least a hundred and
thirty years.

Some inns now known as the Ship were
possibly at one time the " Sheep/' as will be
readily understood by those acquainted with
rustic dialect. Shepherd and Crook, Load of
Hay, Woodman, are all to be found in rural
districts throughout England. The Wheat-
sheaf, whether it surmounts a fine old coaching
house in a market town, or a little wayside
inn far from the madding crowd, reminds us
that we once could boast of the finest wheat

Wayside Inns and Alehouses 111

culture in the world ; while the Harvest Home
pleasantly recalls the merry-making which
concluded the ingathering of the crops.

In some country villages there are a very
large number of small inns close together,
perhaps three in a row. At Steeple Ashton,
in Oxfordshire, there are thirteen, and at
East Ilsley, in Berkshire, nearly as many to a
population of about five hundred. The street
seems almost to consist of public-houses.
But it would be quite wrong to suppose that
the inhabitants of these districts are unduly
given to convivial habits. The reports of the
petty sessions show that drunkenness is
exceedingly rare. In Steeple Ashton division
no charge of drunkenness has been heard for
the past six years. Such villages are decayed
market towns, which become important at the
time of their periodical sheep fairs, when an
army of graziers and shepherds from the
distant downs must find board and lodging.
For a week these inns are crowded with
dealers in velveteen jackets, and grizzled
veterans clad in those blue smock coats and
slouched hats, which were once the universal
dress of village labourers, with a shaggy bob-
tail dog under every chair. When fair -time
is over they are quite deserted.

CHAPTER IX

HISTORIC SIGNS AND HISTORIC INNS

" THE Greeks honoured their great men and
successful commanders by erecting statues
to them," remarks Jacob Larwood ; " modern
nations make the portraits of their cele-
brities serve as signs for public-houses."1
Certainly it would be possible to make the
signboards on the inns serve as texts for a
complete history of England. There was once
even a Ccesar's Head in Great Palace Yard ;
and King Alfred and Canute are still com-
memorated at Wantage and at Southampton ;
while the King Edgar Inn at Chester, repre-
sents on its sign that monarch being rowed
in a wherry down the river Dee by eight
tributary kings. But for authentic and
ancient historical signs we must not refer
to any earlier period than the reign of
Edward III, when inns began to be built in
large numbers.

Many Red Lion inns date from this reign.
The red lion was the badge of John of Gaunt,

1 " History of Signboards," II, 45.
112

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 113

married to Constance, daughter of Don
Pedro the Cruel, King of Leon and Castille.

Red Lion, Wingham

On the other hand, John of Gaunt was the
leader of an unpopular and reactionary party,
not likely to commend itself to the innkeeper.
The Red Lion at Wingham, containing an old

114 Old Country Inns

court -room and some curious and beautifully
carved oaken beams, ceilings and kings-posts,
is declared by experts to date from 1320.
In this case it is more probable that the red
lion of Scotland, conquered by Edward I,
is commemorated. A landlord of the Red
Lion at Sittingbourne, in 1820, advertised
his establishment as " Remarkable for an
entertainment made by Mr. John Norwood
for King Henry V, as he returned from the
Battle of Agincourt, in France, in the year
1415, the whole amounting to no more than
nine shillings and ninepence, wine being at
that time only a penny a pint, and all other
things proportionately cheap/' The Red
Lion at Speldhurst, near Tunbridge Wells,
was discovered by the investigations of the
late Mr. Morris in the Inland Revenue to
have possessed a licence in 1415.

Not all Red Lion inns, however, date from
the fourteenth century, for this was also said
to be the favourite badge of Cardinal Wolsey.
At Hampton-on-Thames the Red Lion came
into existence when that great statesman was
building Hampton Court Palace, and served
to lodge the better class of craftsmen engaged
in the work. After being for centuries a
favourite meeting-place for the Royal Chase,

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 115

it became a resort for literary and dramatic
folk, Dryden, Pope, Colley Gibber, Addison,
Quinn, and Kitty Clive being among the
names associated with the house. In the
early part of the nineteenth century it was
famous for its tulip feasts which drew the
tulip fanciers of the world to Hampton. In
1908 the charming old Tudor structure was
condemned to make way for a street -widening
scheme, and its last appearance was as the
background to a cinematograph picture, in
which the house suddenly burst into
flames, frenzied occupants appeared at the
windows, the heroes of the local fire brigade
flew to the rescue in the nick of time, and
the fire was put out in the most approved
manner.

At Walsingham there is a large inn con-
taining remains of fourteenth -century work,
called the Black Lion. Perhaps it takes its
name from the arms of Queen Philippa, of
Hainault, who came hither with her husband,
Edward III, in 1361, to offer thanks for the
happy conclusion of the French Wars after the
treaty of Bretigny. But both Black Lion and
Golden Lion may occasionally refer to the
lions of Flanders and be marks of the great
immigration of Flemish weavers, ironfounders

116

Old Country Inns

and brewers during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries.

The Swan was a favourite emblem with
many of our kings, its first mention being in

The Swan, Sutton Valence

the " Vow of the Swan," when Edward I
swore to take vengeance on Scotland for the
murder of Comyn. On the signboards it
must generally be ascribed to Henry IV.
With Henry V and VI, the antelope is the
heraldic emblem ; there is an old half-tim-
bered Antelope opposite the Market House at

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 117

Godalming, but it has recently been re-named
the White Hart. At Bristol and at Guildford
are White Lion inns, probably in honour of
Edward IV, whose arms have for supporters
the White Lion and the Black Bull of the house
of Clarence.

Richard III reigned for too short a span to
provide us with many White Boars, and the
few that existed hastened after his death to
change their names to that of the Blue Boar ;
a coat of blue paint was a cheap way of con-
verting the White Boar of the fallen monarch
into the Blue Boar of the Earl of Oxford,
whose influence had contributed very largely
to place Henry Tudor on the throne. It was
at the Blue Boar at Leicester, that Richard
III slept just before the battle of Bosworth.
A large richly carved and gilded four -post
bedstead was long preserved there and shown
to sightseers as the bed which he occupied.
In the time of Elizabeth, a Mr. Clarke, who
kept the house, accidentally discovered a huge
store of gold coins of the reign of Richard III,
underneath the planks of the bedstead. He
concealed his good fortune and thus from a
poor condition he became rich, but this ill-
gotten wealth brought a curse in its train. A
maid-servant plotted with seven ruffians to

118 Old Country Inns

rob the inn. Mrs. Clarke, interrupting them
at their work, was strangled by the maid-
servant, who was sentenced to be drawn and
burnt, and her seven accomplices were
hanged in the Market Place at Leicester
in 1613.

Another sign which disappeared utterly
after the Battle of Bosworth, was the White
Rose ; but the Red Rose of Lancaster is not
uncommon at the present time in the County
Palatine. The Rose and Crown, or Rose and
Portcullis, are the royal signs of Henry VIFs
reign. But as the Rose was in mediaeval
times regarded as an emblem of Our Lady,
" Rosa Mystica," besides being a national
emblem, the numerous Rose inns must not be
attributed to this period without more positive
historical evidence. Such doubts are not
likely to arise with regard to the King's Head,
a sign nearly always adorned with a lifelike
portrait of bluff King Harry. Many of these
houses are old monastic or collegiate property,
whose lessees were anxious by the change of
sign, to acknowledge their acceptance of the
situation. It is not necessary to fare a long
distance from town to find an old King's
Head. In the village of Roehampton, a short
mile from Putney, the much married monarch

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 119

may still be recognized on the battered, faded
signboard hanging over an obelisk-shaped
post in front of the long low inn, faced with
shingles. Within the house are many

King's Head, Roehampton

quaint low-ceilinged rooms and some curious
relics.

" Good Queen Bess/' either by portrait or
bust, is associated with the Queen's Head,
although in this case painter or modeller had
to be careful, as the Virgin Queen was exceed-
ingly particular. If her effigy proved to be

120 Old Country Inns

uncomely, or not lifelike in her opinion, it
was liable to destruction and the perpetrator
to suffer from her serious displeasure. A
proclamation of 1563, complains that "a grete
number of her loving subjects are much greved
and to take grete offence with the errors and
deformities allredy committed by sondry
persons in this behalf/' and orders that means
be taken to " prohibit the shewing and publi-
cation of such as are apparently deformed,
until they may be reformed which are re-
formable," Many of the Queen's Head inns
may owe their origin to Sir Walter Raleigh,
who, in the thirtieth year of that reign
obtained a patent " to make licence for keep-
ing of taverns and retailing of wines through
England." The Queen's Head at Islington,
a noble structure with an elaborately-carved
front and richly ornamented ceilings, has
always been connected traditionally with Sir
Walter. Either in this house, or at the
Old Pied Bull close by, occurred that amusing
episode in the early history of tobacco smoking.
His servant, happening to be carrying in a pail
of water, observed to his horror clouds of smoke
issuing from Raleigh's mouth, and imagining
him to be on fire, with admirable presence of
mind poured the liquid in a deluge over the

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 121

knight. x Both inns have unfortunately been
pulled down.

With James I, the arms of England and
Scotland were united, and the Unicorn ap-
pears for the first time. There are many
Unicorn inns in the South of England ; but
the fabulous beast was also a sign used by
apothecaries, possibly because the horn (really
that of the Narwhal) was supposed to detect
the presence of poison. Albertus Magnus
mentions (without endorsing) a belief current
in his time that knife-handles made of this
substance would sweat, if poison was brought
into the room. Fuller was more credulous.

Charles I took refuge at the Unicorn Inn
at Weobly, in Herefordshire, on September
5th, 1645, and this inn was afterwards called
the Crown. It is now a private house.

Royal Oaks are everywhere in memory of
the Boscobel Oak, and the accession of Charles
II. Oliver Cromwell, who had usurped the
Rose and Crown in High Street, Knights-
bridge, was dethroned once more to make
room for the reinstatement of the old sign.
Coming nearer to our own time the Brunswick

1 Charles Lamb, who delighted in the old Queen's
Head, suggests that the liquid was not water but
" Black Jack."

122 Old Country Inns

inns hail the succession of the house of
Brunswick to the English Crown. George III
and George IV appear occasionally, but not
so frequently as William IV, our Sailor King.
Queen Victoria's popularity is shown by the
hundreds of Victoria, Island Queen, Empress
and Jubilee inns. Since the coronation of
our late gracious sovereign, King Edward
VII, the duties of the justices have involved
the closing of old houses rather than the
licensing of new ones. So that it is unlikely
that future generations will be able to realise
the esteem and regard of his subjects by any
large number of Edward VII inns. However,
there will be a considerable array of Royal
Alberts and Prince of Wales signboards to
indicate this nation's good feeling towards him
when he was heir apparent to the throne ;
the same remark will apply with regard to
the Princess Alexandra and Rose of Denmark.
We have by no means exhausted the list
of royal emblems. Some Falcon inns may
have taken their title from the badge of the
Dukes of York ; but this was not invariably
the case, when in districts where hawking was
a popular sport. The Falcon Hotel, near Clap-
ham Junction, owes its name to the river
Falcon, once a considerable stream, but now

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 123

only permitted to flow through Battersea
underground. The "Gun" was a Tudor sign,
and the Gun Inn at Dorking, evidently dates
from the reign of Edward VI. Edward III
quartered the French arms with the English ;
the practice was continued by his successors
and may have originated the Fleur de Lis or
Flower de Luce inns, where none of the local
families bear this charge on their shields.
Mention of the Fleur de Lis at Faversham
is the one piece of local colouring in the
" Tragedy of Arden of Faversham," formerly
attributed to Shakespeare. The Three Frogs,
near Wokingham, is, perhaps, a version of the
arms of France ; before the entente cordiale it
used to be a theory widely current among
patriotic Britons that the fleur de Us really
was intended for a heraldic representation of
a frog.

Occasionally members of noble families
have attained to such distinction that their
crests have been utilized for inn signs far
beyond the limits of their estates. The Bear
and Ragged Staff was the crest of the Earls of
Warwick ; but it attained to notoriety after
its adoption by the rapacious Dudleys.
Robert Dudley, afterwards Duke of North-
umberland, discarded the Green Lion, his own

124 Old Country Inns

emblem, for the Bear and Ragged Staff of his
mother, the last heiress of the Warwick
family. His fourth son, Robert Dudley,
Earl of Leicester, a favourite of Queen
Elizabeth, inherited the manor at Cumnor,
an old possession of Abingdon Abbey. The
Bear and Ragged Staff at Cumnor, and its
landlord at that period, Giles Gosling, are
described in Sir Walter Scott's novel, " Kenil-
worth," wherein is also related the tragic fate
of Dudley's unhappy countess, Amy Robsart.
Old pictures show this inn down to the middle
of the last century as retaining its thatched
roof and rustic primitive appearance. On
the signboard was the name of the licensee,
with the addition, " late Giles Gosling."

The Eagle and Child was the crest of the
Earls of Derby, the Maiden Head, of the
Dukes of Buckingham, and the White Bear,
that of the Earls of Kent. A still more
frequent sign in the home counties, the Grass-
hopper, shows the popularity of the great Sir
Thomas Gresham, to whom we owe the
Royal Exchange and many other great City
institutions. Sir Christopher Hatton and Sir
Francis Walsingham, both Elizabethan states-
men of eminence, gave us| respectively the
Hind and the Tiger's Head. • For the Saracen's

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 125

Head there will be various claimants,
according to locality, so many crusaders
having adopted this charge ; but a few inn-
keepers of Lollard sympathies possibly adopted
the sign out of compliment to Sir John
Oldcastle. Bagford informs us that the
Pelican was the badge of Lord Cromwell, the
despoiler of monasteries, who also stole this
emblem from the Church. At Speen, near
Newbury, there was a coaching inn on the

Bath Road, which provoked an epigram :

" The famous house at Speenhamland,

That stands upon the hill,
May well be called the Pelican,
From its enormous bill."

Coming to the ballad heroes, Guy of War-
wick and the Dun Cow slain by him are found
all through the Midlands ; but they cannot
compare for popularity with Robin Hood,
who is usually accompanied by Little John on
the signboard. This is not a result of the
modern taste for romantic literature. The
Robin Hood is mentioned as a common ale-
house sign by Samuel Rowlands in " Martin
Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell," published in
1610. All the world loved Robin Hood, and
cherished his memory as a jolly good-natured
outlaw, manly and fearless, generous to the
poor and careful for the honour of womenkind.

126 Old Country Inns

Robin Hood alone among the revolutionary
spirits of the Middle Ages has a place on the
signboards, although Wat Tyler is remem-
bered in connection with the Crown Inn at
Dartford, and Jack Straw's Castle was until
lately a great resort for holiday-makers on
Hampstead Heath. King James and the
Tinker inn at Enfield, which claims on doubt-
ful authority to be over a thousand years
old, is associated with another ballad story
of which there are many versions, such as
" King Henry and the Miller of Mansfield," or
" King John and the Miller of Charlton." In
one of these tales our old friend, the Vicar of
Bray, was dining at the Bear at Maidenhead
with some friends. The party had taxed all
the resources of the hotel, and when a
stranger tired and hungry asked for refresh-
ments, the vicar only admitted him to table
very grudgingly. At the end of the meal the
stranger discovered that he had left his
purse behind him, and was roundly abused by
the dignitary. However, his curate pleaded
that the merry quips and anecdotes of the
guest deserved consideration ; he had proved
himself a good fellow and had earned his
dinner. At this moment some members of
the royal staff enter, and the guest turns out

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 127

to be nothing less than his Majesty James I.
So the churlish vicar undergoes much dis-
comfiture, and the curate receives the reward
of high preferment.

Outbursts of patriotism are a feature on the
signboards. Great victories of the British
forces by land and sea, and the great military
and naval heroes have all been commemorated
in their turn, beginning with the Crispin and
Crispinian, which greeted the troops of Henry
V, as they returned along the old Watling
Street, after Agincourt (which was fought on

the feast day of these twin saints).
" Crispin Crispian shall never go by
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered."

"Henry V," IV, 3.

The Bull and Mouth is said to be a corrup-
tion of Boulogne Mouth, captured by Henry
VIII . Bull and Gate may possibly be a similar
vulgarism for Boulogne Gate. We might
draw up a complete sequence of great battles
fought and fortresses taken during the last
three centuries, but those most frequently
met with are Gibraltar, Waterloo, Battle of the
Nile, and Trafalgar. Admirals range from
Blake to Napier, generals from Marlborough
to Wolseley. Not one of them is forgotten,
though Wellington, Nelson and Keppel can

128 Old Country Inns

probably claim the largest number of adhe-
rents. The Marquis of Granby, almost
forgotten by the ordinary reader of history,
enjoyed a remarkable popularity in his own
day, if we are to judge by the number of
portraits of this high-spirited and courageous
nobleman which hang outside public-houses.
The original of Mr. Tony Weller's Marquis of
Granby is, we believe, the one at Epsom,
" Quite a model of a roadside public -house of
the better class — just large enough to be con-
venient, and small enough to be snug." The
sign portrayed " the head and shoulders of a
gentleman with an apoplectic countenance,
in a red coat with blue facings, and a touch
of the same blue over his three-cornered hat,
for a sky. Over that again were a pair of
flags ; beneath the last button of his coat
were a couple of cannon ; and the whole
formed an expressive and undoubted likeness
of the Marquis of Granby of glorious memory/1
But the heart of the nation was most
deeply touched by the mingled triumph and
pathos at Trafalgar. Lord Nelson, Victory, and
Trafalgar, greet us on every high road that
leads down to the sea, in the neighbourhood
of every harbour or dock, and beside the
quays on every navigable river. And it is

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 129

surprising how many of these Nelson inns
buildings three or four centuries old, showing
that the innkeeper was prepared to sacrifice

The Nelson, Maidstone

the sign under which he had hitherto done
business and trusted to make a new reputa-
tion under the aegis of the popular hero. We
have discovered several Nelson inns of this

130 Old Country Inns

type in Kent, though none which we recall
with more pleasure than the quaint many-
gabled wooden structure with a considerable
list to starboard on the high path by the
riverside at Maidstone. Its ways are homely
but hearty ; the same family have remained
in possession for a period rapidly approaching
the century ; and almost every article of
furniture is old-fashioned and curious.

The public -house has been described as
" the forum of the English/' We may sneer
at pot-house politics, but it is only in the
tavern, the haven of free speech, that the
burning questions of the day can be discussed
with freedom and sincerity. Washington
Irving called the inn " the temple of true
liberty/' The Punch Bowl was a Whig sign,
because that party preferred that beverage
(possibly because it was favoured by Fox),
whereas the Tories remained faithful to old-
fashioned drinks like claret and sack. Most
of the political idols obtaining a recognition
over the tavern door have been champions
of reform, such as John Wilkes, Sir Francis
Burdett, Palmer ston, and Gladstone. Tradi-
tionally the innkeeper was strongly inclined
to this side until the bitter attacks of a section
of the Liberal party on his business and very

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 131

existence forced him in self-protection into
alliance with modern conservatism.

Little interesting fragments of local history
are sometimes recorded on the signboards.
For instance, in High Street, South Norwood,
there are three public-houses in succession,
the Ship, Jolly Sailor, and Albion. But for
these we might forget that the Croydon
Canal once ran through this district with a
wharf for unloading barges. The Sloop Inn,
at Blackhouse, in Sussex, dates from the time
when the river Ouse was navigable as far as
Lindfield. At the foot of Gipsy Hill is the
Gipsy Queen, named after Margaret Finch,
who ruled over the encampment of nomads
in the forest and told fortunes to all comers.
She died in 1760, at the age of 109, and was
buried in Beckenham Churchyard. Owing
to her constant habit of sitting with her chin
resting on her knees, it was necessary to
employ a deep square box in place of an
ordinary coffin for her interment. Local
worthies are not very frequent ; but John
Winchcombe, the famous clothier of Newbury,
" the most considerable clothier that England
ever had," is honoured at intervals along the
Bath Road as Jack of Newbury. General Wolfe,
unlike the prophets, finds special remembrance

132 Old Country Inns

in his own birthplace, Westerham; but Sir
Walter Raleigh has been quite overlooked
at Mitcham, in spite of the fact that he was
the founder of its leading manufacture. The
inhabitants of Islington are more grateful
to Sir Hugh Middleton for providing them
with the New River, and more than one house
bearing this sign exists in the district.

Foreign princes have occasionally attained
the distinction of tavern popularity, but none
so frequently as Frederick the Great, whose
portrait over the inspiring words ' The
Glorious Protestant Hero/' was painted on
many a signboard after the battle of Rosbach,
and the King of Prussia is still a familiar name.
Garibaldi is an instance of British sympathy
with the political aspirations of a foreign
people. Many English adventurers joined
in the struggles of the young Italian nation,
and its principal hero became for the time
a popular idol of the very first order. The
length to which a section of the community
were led in their worship of the red-shirted
revolutionist is satirised happily in Mortimer
Collins' " Village Comedy," wherein the local
publican constantly cites " Old Garry " as
the proper person to appeal to in deciding
delicate questions of etiquette and morality.

Historic Signs and Historic Inns 133

The Anchor at Liphook, on the old Ports-
mouth road, was a favourite resort of Edward
II, when hunting in Woolmer Forest, and
Queen Anne when visiting the Staghunt also
put up here. To this inn came Samuel Pepys
in 1668, " exceeding tremulous about high-
waymen/' having missed his way to Guild-
ford while coming over Hindhead. Another inn
which could many a tale unfold, if walls had
tongues as well as ears, is the Bull at Coventry.
Half a dozen conspiracies have been hatched
under its spreading gables. Henry VII made
it his headquarters before the Battle of
Bosworth. Mary Queen of Scots was im-
prisoned here for a short time ; and it was
the first meeting-place for the devisers of
Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses
of Parliament.

A handsomely-panelled and pilastered
room in the Crown and Treaty at Uxbridge, is
shown to visitors as part of the hall in which
took place those six months of fruitless
negotiations between King and Parliament in
1644, which ended in sealing the fate of the
monarchy. We have not been able to trace
the particular establishment, but it is said that
an alehouse had its share in accomplishing
the restoration of Charles II. It appears

134 Old Country Inns

that a messenger from the Parliament carry-
ing letters to General Monk at Edinburgh
travelled in company with one of the General's
sergeants, and happened to mention that
he also held despatches for the Governor
of Edinburgh Castle. The circumstance
aroused the suspicions of his companion.
The messenger was induced to stop at a way-
side inn and plied with brandy until he became
so intoxicated that the papers could be taken
from his person without detection. Then the
sergeant posted by forced stages to his general
with the packet, which was opened and
perused. It turned out to contain an order
for Monk's arrest. Policy and resentment
combined to direct the eyes of Monk to Charles
Stuart, and in due course the Restoration
became an accomplished fact.

CHAPTER X

SPORTS AND PASTIMES

MANY of the inn signs to be met with in the
old provincial trading centres recall the
sports of our ancestors. Too often these
were of a brutal and barbarous character,
suited only to an age which took its pleasures
strenuously and knew nothing of squeam-
ishness and delicate nerves. Not that we
of the twentieth century are at heart one
whit more humane. The cockney who would
faint at the bloodshed and slaughter in a
bull -ring, devours greedily in his Sunday
newspaper all the details of a horrible murder,
or a railway accident.

Bull -running and bull -baiting was an attrac-
tion only rivalled by bear-baiting. The
corporations of some towns had a by-law
forbidding butchers to exhibit bull beef for
sale, unless the animal had previously been
baited by dogs for the amusement of the
populace. Over the entrance of the ancient
Butchers' Hall at Hereford, still hangs the
bull-ring that was used on these occasions.

135

136

Old Country Inns

It required the introduction of several fruit-
less bills into the House of Commons between
1802 and 1835, before an Act was finally
passed to abolish the practice. Dog and Bear
is a very common sign, usually Jacobean in

Horse and Groom, near Waltham St. Lawrence

its origin. Bull and Ring, Dog and Bull,
Bull and Butcher, are all somewhat rare.

Cock-fighting was a very favourite spectacle
from the earliest times, enjoyed heartily by
gentle and serf, young and old, learned and
simple. Nature intended the game-cock to
strive for mastery with his rival, and with
the weapons provided by nature the combat
has a fearful interest for the modern British
boy, as each spring new conflicts recur in the
farmyard. But the art of the Elizabethan

Sports and Pastimes 137

sportsman supplemented nature with a sharp
spur of steel. A graphic account of a cock-
fight is given by Count Kilmansegge in his
" Diary of a Journey to England, 1761-2."
The scene is to be identified by the little
passage from Queen Anne's Gate to Birdcage
Walk, still known as Cock- Pit Alley.

" On the 1st February, we went to see a
cock-fight, which lasted the whole of the week,
where heavy bets, made by the Duke of
Ancaster and others, for more than 100 guineas
were at stake. The fight takes place at the
Cock-Pit close to St. James's Park, in the
vicinity of Westminster. In the middle of a
circle and a gallery surrounded by benches,
a slightly-raised theatre is erected upon which
the cocks fight ; they are a small kind of cock,
to the legs of which a long spur, like a long
needle is fixed, with which they know how to
inflict damage on their adversaries very
cleverly during the fight, but on which also
they are frequently caught themselves, so
breaking their legs. One bird of each of the
couples which we saw fighting met with this
misfortune, so that he was down in a moment,
and unable to raise or to help himself, con-
sequently his adversary at once had an
enormous advantage. Notwithstanding this,

138 Old Country Inns

he fought with his beak for half an hour
but the other bird had the best of it, and both
were carried off with bleeding heads. No
one who has not seen such a sight can conceive
the uproar by which it is accompanied, as
everybody at the same time offers and accepts
bets . . . We were satisfied with seeing two
fights, although we might have remained to
see still more for the half-crown which we paid
on entering/'

The cock -pit was not infrequently to be
found in the inn yards. At Lincoln the
corporation pit was in the yard of the
Reindeer, and here James I, a great patron
of this sport, was entertained. Pope, whilst
living with his father at Chiswick, took great
delight in cock-fighting ; all his pocket-money
was laid out in buying birds from various
choice strains. From this passion, we are
told, his mother had the good sense and
skill to wean him.

Country towns generally contain an inn
called the Cock-fighters, sometimes with remains
of the old pit in situ ; and the sign of the Cock
and Bell is said to be derived from the shrove-
tide cock-fights, when boys matched their
birds against each other, and to the lucky
owner was awarded a silver bell, which he

Sports and Pastimes 139

wore in his hat for three Sundays following.
Originally, the Shrovetide cocks were
mounted on stools and stones thrown at
them. Out of this has grown the modern
" Cocoanut Shy/'

The sign of the Bird in Hand, often merely
facetious, may when seen on old inns, as at
Widmore, near Bromley, have reference to
hawking ; so with Hawk and Buckle and
Falcon which, as a rule, we are content to
treat as heraldic emblems.

The Kentish Bowman and the Bow and
Arrow remain to tell us of archery, the
favourite village pastime in rural England
until quite recently. It is a disputed point
whether the resilient virtues of the wood, or
their use in Palm Sunday processions had most
to answer for the hacked and mutilated
condition of the branches of old churchyard
yews. Speed the Plough recalls the rustic
ploughing competitions.

Dog and Gun, Dog and Duck, Dog and
Badger, Fox and Hounds, and Huntsman, all
betray the characteristic trait of John Bull,
who celebrates a fine frosty morning by
" going out to kill something/' The Hunt
meet is usually in front of some leading inn ;
and hither when the run is over choice blades

140 Old Country Inns

repair to recount the doings of the day.
These inns abound in trophies of the chase,
mounted antlers, stuffed foxes, otters, or rare
birds in glass cases ; though few can vie with
the collection of specimens and prints at the
Swan, Tarporley ; where even the plate and
crockery bear witness to the pursuits of
its patrons.

The Blue Cap at Sandiway, in Cheshire,
built in 1715, was so re-named in 1762 in
memory of a very remarkable hound. So
fast was his pace that a weight had to be
slung round his neck to prevent him out-
racing the rest of the pack. On one side
of the signboard his portrait appears. On
the reverse the following account of the
race which first brought him into notice :

"On Saturday, September 28th, 1762,
Blue Cap and Wanton, ye property of Mr.
Smith-Barry, Master of ye Cheshire, in a
match over ye Beacon course at Newmarket,
beat a couple of Mr. Meynell's (ye Quorn),
one of which was Richmond. Sixty horses
started with ye hounds. Mr. Smith-Barry's
huntsman, Cooper, was ye first up, but ye mare
that carried him was quite blind at ye end.
Only twelve got to ye end. Will Craine,
who trained ye Cheshire hounds, came in

Sports and Pastimes 141

twelfth on Rib. Betting was 6 to 4 on
Meynell's."

According to Daniel the race was run at
fully thirty miles an hour.

From an inn named after an hound, we pass
to another in the same county, much more
curious and antique in its thatched roof
gables and old furniture, which keeps green
the memory of a splendid racehorse. The
Smoker at Plumbley has nothing to do
with tobacco. The portrait of the old horse,
together with the arms of Sir George Leicester,
father of the first Baron de Tabley, owner of
the horse, have been painted on the signboard
by the daughter of Lady Leighton Warren, a
member of this family.

Inns are no longer betting centres, but their
owners are keenly interested in sport, and
many jovial souls still notch calendars by
racing events, referring to some local episodes
as having occurred " in the year when Stick-
phast won the Derby." Although the Run-
ning Horse was a Hanoverian emblem, most
of the houses of this name within a few miles
of Epsom must owe their origin to the racing
fraternity. The old Running Horse at Sand-
ling, near Maidstone, so students of Dickens
declare, suggested Mr. Pickwick's adventure

142 Old Country Inns

with the eccentric steed, hired for the benefit
of Mr. Winkle.

Bowls is still almost as favourite a pastime
at the old inns as it was in the days of Sir
Francis Drake. In East Anglia the greens
are often of remarkable size and beautifully
kept. The finest bowling green in the South
of England is, we believe, that behind the
Queen's Head at Hawkhurst, an old-fashioned
house to be visited for its sweet situation
and cosy arrangements — as well as for the
almost unique collection of old furniture
gathered together by the late Mr. Clements.
On the lawn of the Anchor at Hartfield, a
game is in vogue called " Clock Golf/' which
we have seen nowhere else, but which
possesses its attractions.

It is a traditional habit among prize-
fighters when they retire on their laurels to
assume the management of a tavern, where
their reputation makes them efficient in main-
taining order ; but the sedentary style of
life usually produces too much adipose
tissue for perfect health and happiness. Old
cricketers also drift into the same haven.
Indeed, the public-house has contributed
many of the best exponents of the national
game. William Clarke, the father of modern

Sports and Pastimes 143

cricket, and first secretary of the famous All
England Eleven, kept the Trent Bridge Inn
at Nottingham; Noah Mann, a famous
Sussex player, and one of the heroes of the
Hambleden Club, came from an inn at North
Chapel, near the Surrey border of the county.
He is said to have once made ten runs with
one hit. At Mitcham, nursery alike of
vegetation and of Surrey cricket, every
publican is a cricketer of repute. Bat and
Ball, Cricketers, and similar signs are, of
course, to be met with everywhere.

At the Swan, Ash Vale, close to Basing-
stoke Canal, and at present kept by Mr. John
Tupper, the well-known army trainer, there
still remains one of the last rat-pits — of
course, now not utilized for the sport. Rat-
ting survived cock-fighting for a time, the usual
method being to turn a dog in with a number
of rats, which he was expected to kill within
a given number of minutes. The pit was
about six feet in diameter with a high un-
climbable rim either of wood or polished
cement.

A more humane, but very exciting rough-
and-tumble competition may occasionally be
witnessed in the public-houses of some east-
end districts, and is entitled " Boot hunting.1'

144 Old Country Inns

Various individuals who pay an entrance fee
of perhaps sixpence, group themselves on a
platform at the end of the room, and remove
their footgear which are put into a barrel,
shaken up, and then deposited in a heap.
The signal is given, each man scrambles for
his own property, and to the first who suc-
ceeds in getting his boots on the prize is
awarded. Sometimes the competitors are
chosen by the audience whose " gate-money "
provides the trophy.

We can hardly trace the sites even of the
inns and alehouses between Ware and Totten-
ham mentioned in the " Compleat Angler."
But, like old Isaac Walton, the modern piscator
loves to sample " the good liquor that our
honest forefathers did use to drink of,
which preserved their health, and made them
to live so long and to do so many good deeds ! "
The Talbot has disappeared from Ashbourne
on the Dove, but there are " other inns as
good/' The Isaac Walton Inn, on the Dove,
has been for many years a favourite resort
of anglers. On the banks of the Thames,
Kennet, Arun, or Great Ouse, there are
hostelries in which anglers much do con-
gregate at eventide during the season ; on
their walls gigantic trout (suspected by the

Sports and Pastimes 145

stranger to be modelled in plaster), float in
most lifelike attitude within a sea of painted
glass. And we know of snug bar parlours in
the backwoods of Bermondsey, Finsbury, and
Bethnal Green, whither about nine o'clock
men laden with rods and heavy baskets or
sacks may be observed hurrying along to be
in time for the " weighing in."

The inn yards of Bishopsgate and South-
wark witnessed the early performances of the
English drama ; and the auditorium of the
theatre takes its form from the tiers of
galleries surrounding the " pit " which the
players found there. Music halls have also
grown up from the impromptu concerts in
the taverns. The older music halls, like the
Oxford, Middlesex, or Deacon's, were twenty
years ago simply public-houses with a hall
behind them, where a chairman, armed with a
hammer to maintain silence, announced each
performer by name and arranged the order
of the programme.

Many inns contain museums. At the Mar-
quis of Granby, near New Cross Station, there
is a magnificent collection of hunting-knives,
rifles, etc. The late Mr. Frank Churchill, of
the White Lion, Warlingham, displayed in
the ancient chimney-corner of that house

146 Old Country Inns

gridirons, spits, and domestic utensils of
ancient pattern, and Mr. Alfred Churchill
had a similar museum at the White
Hart, at Bletchingley.

For some unknown reason the police are
discouraging these museums, and in some
districts publicans are warned against har-
bouring games of any kinds. Even good old
English manly pastimes like bowls and
skittles are under the ban of the licensing
magistrates.

The other day we discussed the matter
with an old yeoman farmer, while we watched
a quartette of young fellows playing a kind of
bagatelle. He declared that the effect of
this policy, now so sedulously pursued by the
police, of depriving public-house frequenters
of any species of recreation whatever, was
fast driving young men into the political clubs
where extravagant gambling and hard drink-
ing, especially of spirits, was the fashion.
Many promising careers had been ruined in
this way — and this we may corroborate from
our own experience in various towns. With
tears in his eyes the old man confessed to us
that his vote had blackballed his own boy
from admission into the local club. The
total expenditure of the group during a whole

Sports and Pastimes 147

evening's amusement at the public -house
amounted to a sum not exceeding a shilling ;
perchance at the club they might have been
tempted to squander away at least half their
week's earnings.

CHAPTER XI

THE INNS OF LITERATURE AND ART

JOHN BALL, shut up in the Archbishop's prison
at Canterbury, fell a'longing for " the green
fields and the whitethorn bushes, and the lark
singing over the corn, and the talk of good
fellows round the alehouse bench.'* The
same craving for the real things of life comes
to every creative genius fretting against class
restrictions. Sir Walter Scott, when staying
with Wordsworth at Grassmere, usually man-
aged to give his host the slip in order to spend
an hour or two in the Swan beyond the village ;
just as Addison had fled the splendid state
of Holland House for the Old White Horse in
Kensington Road. Either this wayside inn
or the Red Lion at Hampton, was the scene
of the historic drinking bout between Addison
and Pope, which so upset the latter's digestion
and sense of dignity that he ever afterwards
described the great essayist as a terrible
drunkard. The Bull and Bush, in North End
Hampstead, now chiefly patronised by holiday
makers on account of its attractive tea-gardens,

148

150 Old Country Inns

was another resort where Addison, Dryden,
Steele, and the rest of the famous galaxy of
wits loved to gather. It is said also to have
once been the country seat of Hogarth.

More temperate in their devotion to the
flowing bowl, but scarcely less brilliant in their
abilities, were the company who fifty years ago
used to visit the Bull at Woodbridge. George
Borrow, the gipsy wanderer ; Edward Fitz-
gerald, the translator of " Omar Khayyam/*
and Charles Keene, the Punch Artist, were
among the number. Old John Grout, who
kept the house, was himself an odd character.
When Lord Tennyson came to stay with Fitz-
gerald, at Woodbridge, the latter remarked
to Grout that the town ought to feel itself
honoured. John was not a student of poetry,
and inquired of Mr. Groome (whose son tells
the story in " Two Suffolk Friends ") who was
the gentleman that Mr. Fitzgerald had been
talking of. " Mr. Tennyson, the poet-laureate/'
was the reply. " Dissay," said John, hazily ;
"anyhow, he didn't fare to know much about
bosses when I showed him over my stables !"
In these stables there is a tomb to the memory
of George Carlow, who was buried there in
1738, at his own special desire.

Many, who afterwards rose to eminence in

The Inns of Literature and Art 151

the world of art and letters were born at inns.
David Garrick's birthplace was at the Raven
at Hereford ; at the Garrick Theatre, hard by,
Kitty Clive, Mrs. Siddons and Kemble made
some of their early successes. William Cobbett
was born at the Jolly Farmer at Farnham;
while at the little Wheatsheaf in Kelvedon, now
disused, but still retaining the wrought-iron
bracket from which the sign used to swing,
Charles Spurgeon, the famous preacher, first
saw the light. Cardinal Wolsey's father is
generally described as a butcher, but he was
also a tavern-keeper at Ipswich. Like dear
old Tom Hughes, who kept the Black Lion
at Walsingham, a few years ago, he combined
with his inn, branch shops for the sale of
bread and meat. It was at the Black Bear
at Devizes, then kept by his father, that Sir
Thomas Lawrence first discovered his talent
as a painter. We may add that a personage
with an entirely different kind of reputation
—Dick Turpin — was born at the Crown,
Hempstead, Essex.

A very large number of inns all over
England are dedicated to the memory of
Shakespeare ; in fact, a print dated 1823 shows
the chief portion of the house where the Bard
was born at Stratford-on-Avon, as a very

1 1— (8244)

152

Old Country Inns

picturesque inn — the Swan and Maiden Head
— with a portly, good-humoured landlord
standing in the doorway and inviting visitors
to enter and drink a bumper . Of Shakespeare* s

Sir John Falstaff, Newington

characters, the one best known on the sign-
boards is Sir John Falstaff. There are three
Falstaff inns on the Dover road. The first is
that on Gad's Hill, the scene of the hero's most
glorious exploit, and incidentally connecting
him with his prototype, Sir John Oldcastle.
At Canterbury, just outside the West Gate,
the Falstaff is a fine old-fashioned comfortable
house with some very good linen-fold panelling.

The Inns of Literature and Art 153

But we love best to linger over the Sir John
Falstaff at Newington, near Sittingbourne.
The projecting upper storey, bracketed out on
grinning satyrs, the excellent portrait of the
fat knight on the signboard, the noble cornice,
and the rakish lines of the great red-tiled roof
all give the distinctive character of the best
Jacobean work. Standing amid its homelier
neighbours in the village street, it looks like
a rollicking cavalier who has come down in the
world and is just a little bit ashamed of being
seen in such company. His finery is sadly
faded ; he is obliged now to shift for himself
and pick up what he can among these com-
mon people. If we wait awhile, he will take
us aside, and confide in us about his doings,
when he could share in the gay monarch's
revels with the best of them. Ben Jonson,
Garrick, and Dr. Syntax, are almost the only
other literary or dramatic signs that are at
all common.

The Three Pigeons at Brentford was, in all
likelihood, one of the haunts of Shakespeare,
and was certainly frequented by Ben Jonson,
who mentions it in the " Alchymist," as also
does Thomas Middleton in " The Roaring
Girl." At this time the landlord was John
Lowin,of the Globe Theatre, said to have been

154 Old Country Inns

the original creator of Falstaff in the " Merry
Wives of Windsor/' and of the part of
Henry VIII. He died in great poverty during
the Commonwealth and the inn has lately
been rebuilt.

Whether the Bell at Edmonton is really the
house at which John Gilpin ought to have
dined is a controversial point, in spite of the
graphic portrait of the hero on his mettlesome
steed. More authentic is the fact that, at the
Bell, Charles Lamb was in the habit of taking
a parting glass with his friends before seeing
them off by the London coach.

The White Swan at Henley-in-Arden, and
the Red Lion at Henley, dispute the claim to
having inspired William Shenstone's poem
" Written at an Inn." Dr. Johnson decided
in favour of the latter, and would repeat with
emotion the concluding verse which was
scratched in the inn window :

" Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round

Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
The warmest welcome at an inn."

By way of antithesis we subjoin the follow-
ing poem on a window in the Star and Garter
Sit Brighton:

The Inns of Literature and Art 155

"WM. VEAR

Slept Here

October the 1st

Last Year."

In the earlier chapters of " The Cloister
and the Hearth/' a variety of characteristic
mediaeval inns are described, with much
archaeological accuracy and also with a sly
satirical humour. " Like Father, like Son/'
is a proverb very true in the unchanging
byways of Central Europe. Charles Reade is
for ever giving us graphic touches regarding
the eccentricities and shortcomings of Black
Forest and Burgundian inns of our own time.
Delightful, too, is the scene at the Pied Merlin
in Conan Doyle's " White Company," and we
appreciate it none the less that some of the
appointments at Dame Eliza's hostelry were
scarcely likely to be found in a New Forest
inn so early as the reign of Edward III.

For the coaching inns recourse must be had
to the pages of " Joseph Andrews," " Tom
Jones," and " Pickwick," and for the smaller
class of inns, " The Old Curiosity Shop."
Fielding and Dickens are each inimitable in
their way ; the earlier novelist concentrates
on humanity in its many sorts and conditions ;
Dickens, on the contrary, revels in surrounding

156 Old Country Inns

details. He loves to dally with every smoke-
stained beam, lattice-window, or row of
battered pewter pots and blue mugs, before
ushering in the motley throng who gather
round the tap-room fire, or the fine lady and
gentleman in the smartly-appointed chaise
whom the landlord receives so obsequiously.

Many of the best scenes in old comedies
are laid in the inns. When they were a
general place of resort for all classes, including
men of rank and fortune, they naturally lent
themselves to the unexpected meetings and
odd blunders which serve to make up a
farcical plot. County, racing and hunting
balls were all held in the principal inn of a
town ; just the opportunity for a needy
adventurer to introduce himself by imper-
sonation or otherwise. The details of the
scheme are arranged in the Coffee Room ;
and landlord or waiter supply the necessary
information enabling the lover to pose suc-
cessfully as Simon Pure. Then, again, the
audience were familiar with the surroundings
and were easily drawn into sympathetic
interest. Waiter, boots, and ostler were all
valuable properties to be utilized in supplying
the humorous element as occasion served.

George Colman, the younger, chose for much

The Inns of Literature and Art 157

of the action of his play, " John Bull, or the
Englishman's Fireside/' a little wayside inn
on the Cornish border. Sir Walter Scott
praised this comedy as " by far the best
example of our later comic drama. The
scenes of broad humour are executed in the
best possible taste ; and the whimsical, yet
native characters, reflect the manners of
real life/' Not the least pleasing of these is
Denis Brulgruddery, the warm-hearted im-
pulsive landlord of the Red Cow. And so it
ever is. We associate the inn with genial
comfort and old English hospitality ; the
sight of it kindles every good sentiment of
human kindness within us, and we hail with
enthusiasm the reconciliation of father and
child, the union of two constant lovers, and
happiness restored all round. There is nothing
so successful on the stage as an inn scene.

Artists have also shared in the making of
the inns. A host of signboards are attributed
to Hogarth or that eccentric and profligate
genius, George Morland. Isaac Fuller was
another eminent painter who turned his tal-
ents in this direction. The Royal Oak sign
at Bettws-y-Coed, now in the possession of
the Willoughby d'Eresby family, was painted
by David Cox, the George and Dragon at

158 Old Country Inns

Hayes, in Kent, by Millais. Outside the
King's Head at Chigwell — the Maypole of
" Barnaby Rudge " — hangs a portrait of
Charles I, by Miss Herring, while the sign of
the George and Dragon at Wargrave is the
work of Mr. George Leslie, R. A. St. George
is depicted as taking refreshment after the
battle out of a tankard of respectable size.
The old inn by the bridge at Brandon on the
Little Ouse, and the Old Swan at Fittleworth
on the Arun, are full of paintings by modern
artists ; the latter has one room ornamented
with panel pictures by various hands, and
the sign (too delicate to hang outside) was
painted by Caton Woodville. There was at
Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, a signboard
painted by Hilton, the Royal Academician,
which hung over the inn door for over forty
years, finally being taken down and sold,
on a change of tenancy.

Mr. J. F. Herring, the animal painter, used
to relate how he once painted a signboard for
a carpenter employed by him. The car-
penter afterwards took a beer shop and put
the sign, which represented the " Flying
Dutchman/' over the door. Eventually he
sold it for £50, and with the money emigrated
to Australia.

The Inns of Literature and Art 159

Most old inns contain pictures more or less
valuable, or at least old sporting prints.
Few can compare in this respect with the
George at Aylesbury, rebuilt about 1810,
which from time immemorial has possessed
a remarkable collection of good pictures ;
portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds and My tens,
besides some well executed copies of Rubens,
Raphael and others. It is supposed to have
been brought from Eythorpe House, demol-
ished in the early years of the nineteenth
century.

CHAPTER XII

FANCIFUL SIGNS AND CURIOUS SIGNBOARDS

THE antiquarian magazines of the last cen-
tury are full of correspondence and ingenious
explanations of such signs as the Pig and
Whistle y Cat and Fiddle, or Goat in Boots.
Many of the suggestions offered are far more
whimsical in character than the devices they
profess to explain. " Cat and Fiddle " is
supposed to be a corruption of Caton Fiddle,
a certain incorruptible Governor of Calais.
Pig and Whistle has been traced to " Peg and
Wassail/' with reference to the pegged
tankards formerly passed round for the loving
cup, each guest being expected to drink down
to the next peg. " Pix and Housel," in honour
of the Blessed Sacrament, or the Danish Ave
Maria, and "Pige Washail" have also been
suggested by the learned. Mr. T. C. Croker, in
his " Walk to Fulham," attempted to derive
the Goat in Boots at Fulham from der Goden
Boodey the " Messenger of the Gods," or
Mercury ; the idea being that the house
was originally a posting inn. The Pig and

160

Signs and Signboards 161

Whistle may possibly be a rustic corruption
of the Bear and Ragged Staff on a somewhat
faded signboard.

Animals masquerading in human attire or
performing human actions were a favourite
conceit of the mediaeval craftsman, as may
be seen by the carvings on the stalls of our old
cathedrals. Most likely we owe these humor-
ous signs to the sign-painter himself. He
was commissioned to design an advertise-
ment that would puzzle inquisitive people
and so attract customers.

The Goat and Compasses is supposed to be
a corruption of a motto set up over inns
during the period of puritan tyranny, " God
encompasses us" ; Bag of Nails of " Bac-
chanals." In default of better explanations
we must accept these. Until recently a public
house existed in St. James* Street, called the
Savoy Weepers — a name which might open up
an endless mystification if we did not know
that the house was previously occupied by
the S avoir Vivre Club. The Goose and Grid-
iron is, according to the Tatler, a parody of
the favourite trade-mark of early music
houses, the Swan and Harp ; while the
Monster in Pimlico may have been the monas-
tery inn, built during the time that the

162 Old Country Inns

monks of Westminster Abbey farmed this
estate.

Why Not, and Dew Drop Inn are, of course,
invitations to the wayfarer ; Bird in Hand
and Last House, or Final, suggestion that he
should not waste his opportunities to imbibe.

In the village of Sennen, Cornwall, is one
of the best known inns, having for its sign
the First and Last, which is quite ob-
viously not intended as a limit to the drinker.
It has reference, of course, to the fact that if
you should be journeying to the south-west
the inn will be the last one you will meet with
before reaching the sea, whereas it will be the
first should your journey be by ship coming
eastward. As a matter of actual experience,
hundreds of ships which in the course of a
year " pick up " the light at Land's End
have not been in sight of a public -house for
months, during which they have been crossing
thousands of miles of ocean. So that in the
case of sailors working these particular vessels
the name of the inn has a very appealing
significance.

He would be a bold man who would venture
to assert positively which is the best -known inn
in London ; but if the map be consulted, the
Elephant and Castle will be seen to occupy a

Signs and Signboards 163

position at the junction of several great roads
to the south, and if the volume of traffic
which must daily go past the doors is con-
sidered, it needs very little more to convince
most people that the Elephant is probably
better known by name at all events, than any
other public -house within the four-mile radius
of Charing Cross. In coaching times the
inn was passed by every traveller bound for
the south-east, and some authorities have
contended that when Shakespeare recom-
mended that " In the south suburbs at the Ele-
phant is best to lodge, " * he had in his mind
the celebrated hostelry of Newington Butts.
But this is probably a mistake, for the
Elephant and Castle did not come into exist-
ence until long after Shakespeare's time. In
1658, the ground upon which it now stands
was not built upon, but probably the first
inn on the site came into existence about
twenty years later. In 1824, the inn was
rebuilt, and since then there have been many
additions and alterations which have got
farther and farther away from the original
building as it was in the seventeenth century.
The Elephant and Castle, as far as the anti-
quarian is concerned, is now merely a curious
1 "Twelfth Night" ; Act III, Sc. 3.

164 Old Country Inns

name. Another extremely rare sign in Lon-
don is the Sieve, which as late as 1890 stood
in the Minories. In 1669 there was a Sieve in
Aldermanbury, but more is known of the one
in the Minories. It was referred to in the
" Vade Mecum for Malt Worms," 1715, and
was then considered one of the oldest and
most noted public-houses of London. It
adjoined Holy Trinity Church. Under-
neath were crypt-like cellars which may
originally have had connection with the
adjoining convent of the nuns of St. Clare.
In the records of the Parish of Holy Trinity,
which was all included within the ancient
precincts of the convent, there is mention of
the appointment of a " vitler to the parish/1
On February 13th, 1705, is a record of a vestry
meeting at the Sieve " about agreeing to pull
down the churchyard wall." On this
occasion so serious was the discussion that as
much as six shillings was spent in refresh-
ments before the matter was settled. A good
deal of speculation on the origin of the name
of this old inn has been indulged in, one
solution being that the chalk foundations
in the crypt may have suggested the sign.
The Metropolitan Railway Company acquired
the property, and closed the house in 1886,

Signs and Signboards 165

before its final disappearance four years
later.

The Adam and Eve, another common
London sign, is, we have reason to believe,
frequently a repainting of the Zodiacal sign
of the Twins, the city having according to
astrologers, its ascendant in Gemini, the

Sign of Fox and Hounds, Barley

House of Mercury, who rules merchandise and
all ingenious arts.

An odd sign to find in the heart of Essex
is the Whalebone, and in the same county at
Great Leighs, there is a Saint Anna's Castle,
which is supposed to stand on the site of a
hermitage made sacred by the presence of
some local saint.

Dean Swift was once asked by the village
barber of Co. Meath, by whom he was regularly
shaved, to assist him in the invention of an

166 Old Country Inns

inscription for the sign of the Jolly Barber,
a house which it was intended to conduct
as an inn and a barber's shop combined.
Swift at once composed the following couplet,
which remained under the painted sign
depicting a barber with a razor in one hand
and a full pot in the other, for many years :

" Rove not from pole to pole, but step in here
Where nought excels the shaving but — the beer."

The Three Loggerheads, generally in the form
of two silly looking faces and the motto :

" We three
Loggerheads be,"

is an attempt to take a mean advantage of
the unwary spectator. Sometimes two asses
appear on the signboard with the inscription
" When shall we three meet again ? " and this
sign is alluded to by Shakespeare in " Twelfth
Night/' At Mabelthorpe is a unique sign
called the Book in Hand. It is not so much
on account of its name that it is curious, for
this might have occurred to anyone, particu-
larly in days when the ability to read was not
so conspicuously common as it is to-day.
But the sign itself is so odd. A rudely shaped
hand and forearm sticks out straight from the
brick wall and in the hand is an open book
with three Latin crosses on the right page

Signs and Signboards 167

and one on the left. The origin of the sign
is lost, but it seems obviously to have had
at one time some ecclesiastical connection.

Many names of inns have arisen from the
puns on the landlord or locality. The Black
Swan in Bartholomew Lane, once a resort
for musical celebrities was kept by Owen
Swan, parish clerk of St. Michael's Cornhill.
The Brace Tavern, in Queen's Bench Prison,
was opened by two brothers of the name of
Partridge. Hat and Tun was the sign of a
public-house in Hatton Garden, and the
Warbolt in Tun of the little inn at Warbleton,
in Sussex. At least one Three Pigeons began
business with a worthy surnamed Pigeon for
landlord, although this sign is usually derived
from a coat of arms charged with three martlets.
According to a correspondent, the Bell Inn
of a village not far from Oxford was formerly
kept by John Good, who set up this inscription
under a gigantic representation of a bell :

" My name, likewise my ale, is good,
Walk in, and taste my own home-brewed,
For all that know John Good can tell
That, like my sign, it bears the Bell."

Ben Jonson in the " Alchymist " satirised
this kind of wit :

" He shall have a bell that's Abel,
And by it standing one whose name is Dee

la— (a«44)

168 Old Country Inns

In a rug gown, there's D and Rug, that's Drug ;

And right anenst him a dog snarling err,

There's Dmgger, Abel Drugger. That's his sign."

The last Honest Lawyer in London has just
ceased to exist, but there is still an Honest
Miller at Withersden, near Wye, in Kent.
It is approached by devious ways and difficult
to find. Hence perhaps the name. Like the
Silent Woman, the honest lawyer was repre-
sented with his head cut off. A very famous
signboard, said to have been painted by
Hogarth, was The Man loaded with Mischief,
in Oxford Street. The man was carrying
a woman, glass in hand, a magpie, and a
monkey. Underneath was the rhyme :
" A monkey, a magpie, and a wife
Is the true emblem of strife."

At Grantham, an eccentric lord of the manor
about a century ago insisted on having all the
signs of public -houses on his estate painted
with the political colour which he favoured.
Thus the town possessed, in 1830, the follow-
ing : Blue Boat, Blue Sheep, Blue Bull, Blue
Ram, Blue Lion, Blue Bell, Blue Cow, Blue
Boar, Blue Horse, and Blue Inn. By way of
retaliation, a neighbouring landowner and
political opponent actually named one of his
houses the Blue A ss. Grantham also can boast
of the original Beehive Inn with the motto :

Signs and Signboards 169

" Stop ! Traveller, this wondrous sign explore,
And say when thou hast viewed it o'er,
Grantham, now, two rarities are thine,
A lofty steeple, and a living sign."

On Gallows Tree Heath, near Reading,
there stands a Reformation Inny somewhat
grim and tantalizing in its greeting to the
unfortunate wretches who were led past it to
execution, and had lost the opportunity to
profit by the advice. A cynical humour of
the same description must have suggested
the Half Brick for the sign of an inn at Worth-
ing. It is said that the aborigines of some
towns in England invariably welcome a
stranger by " heaving half a brick at him."

The original Hole in the Wall is believed
to have been either (1) a highwayman's
retreat, such as the Hole in the Wall in Chandos
Street, where Claude Duval was captured, or
(2) an aperture made in the wall of a debtor's
prison through which charitable people might
offer gifts of money or victuals to the unfor-
tunate inmates. At the Hole in the Wall
in the Borough there is a museum of curiosities
worth a visit, and another under the railway
arches of Waterloo Station is a noted depot
for Petersfield ales, much frequented by rail-
way men and various odd characters. There
is to this day a very suggestive hole in the wall

170

Old Country Inns

at Turpin's Cave, a small inn near High
Beech, Epping Forest. In this hole it is
commonly believed that the celebrated high-
wayman hid himself on many occasions when
hard pressed by the police. The story can

Sign of Black's Head, Ashbourne

very easily be believed by anyone with a
spark of imagination, for the inn lies in a
secluded nook which even to-day is not at all
easy to find, in spite of a signboard stuck up
in the gorse bushes some little distance from
the road. The hole itself is a kind of arched
ruin, bricked over, and might at a pinch have
held Black Bess and her famous rider.

Almost gone are the heavy frames and
beams which once stretched across the high-
ways and effectually proclaimed the name
and style under which the innkeeper carried
on his business. On these beams a group of

Signs and Signboards 171

swans disported in effigy before the Four
Swans at Waltham Cross. A fine magpie
dangled from the centre at Stonham, Suffolk,
while elsewhere a fox was represented crossing
the beam and followed by a bevy of hounds.
There is still remaining such a beam, from the
centre of which a bell is suspended outside the
Bell at Edenbridge. Another is still in use
at Ashbourne, Derbyshire, where the Green
Man and Black's Head, an old Georgian posting
house, announces its existence by a long beam
stretched across the street, supported at one
end by a pole, the other end running into the
red brick wall of the building, immediately
over the typical archway leading to the inn
yard. The black's head is an effigy in carved
and painted wood, planted firmly in the centre
of the beam and looking for all the world
as if it had only lately been cut off and put
there to warn other blacks of a similar awful
fate, if ever they should chance to come
to Ashbourne. Under the head, suspended
from the beam is a big framed picture, and a
small secondary beam on each side has re-
cently been placed to carry those two terribly
modern words, " garage " and " petrol."
One can fancy the old driver of the four-in-
hand, could he come to life again, scratching

172 Old Country Inns

his head in perplexity over the hidden
mysteries of these literary innovations to the
familiar sign. Ashbourne, it may be remarked
in passing, whilst perhaps not glorying in
" one man one public-house/* is certainly as
close to that condition of things as any town
in England. To a stranger visiting Ash-
bourne in the middle of the week and feeling
the charm of its quiet old-world streets with
but few people walking about, it is a matter
for wonder as to how all the licensed houses
keep going. But go there on market days and
note the waggons and farmers* carts standing
in rows outside every hostelry and the matter
becomes much more easily understood.
Ashbourne, like one or two other towns of the
North Derbyshire and Staffordshire moors,
has until quite recently been cut off from the
run of the country's traffic, and is still a market
centre for a very extensive agricultural dis-
trict. Within the last year or two a road
motor service has placed it in rapid and fre-
quent communication with the county town,
so that this comparative isolation is likely to
last very little longer.

The White Hart at Scole, in Norfolk, once
had the most expensive and elaborate sign
of this character ever produced. High above

Signs and Signboards

173

the road it stretched, on one side attached
to the house, and resting on a brick pier at
the opposite end across the way. In the centre
was a noble White Hart, carved in a stately
wreath, while on each side were no less than

Sign of White Hart, Witham

twenty-four allegorical figures in compart-
ments. The whole was designed by John
Fairchild, in 1655, and cost £1,057. An
engraving was published by Martin in 1740.
By the way, this inn also possessed " a
very large round bed big enough to hold

174 Old Country Inns

fifteen or twenty couples in imitation of the
great bed at Ware."

Of existing signs, the most remarkable is
the Red Lion of Martlesham outside an inn
which is itself both old and curious. This
monster, a byword all over Suffolk, was
probably at one time the figure-head of a
ship, and local tradition ascribes it to one of
the Dutch warships destroyed in the battle
of Sole Bay, fought off Southwold in 1672.
Outside the Bear at Wantage stands a life-
like carved bear on a high pedestal ; at the
Bear at Chelsham, in Surrey, a large white
bear lurks amongst the shrubs of the front
garden in a way very startling to timid
passers-by, especially at dusk. The Swan at
Great Shefford, in Bucks, has a most effective
sign, in the form of a large vane representing
a swan ; while the White Horse at Ipswich, as
in Mr. Pickwick's time, " is rendered the more
conspicuous by a stone statue of some
rapacious animal with flowing mane and tail
distantly resembling an insane cart-horse,
which is elevated above the principal door."

The disused Sun Inn at Saffron Walden,
built about 1625, has for its sign a noble piece
of plaster work in the tympanum representing
the Sun supported by two giants. A curious

Signs and Signboards

175

old piece of carving which displays a white
swan chained to a tree flanked by the arms of
England and France forms the sign of the

Angel Inn, Theale

Swan Inn at Clare, and probably is intended
to commemorate some triumph of the House
of Clarence over the Lancastrians. Another
beautiful little inn, now disused and sadly
neglected, the Angel at Theale, has angel heads
introduced over each of its dainty oriels.

176 Old Country Inns

Many of the White Hart inns retain painted
signboards of quite passable quality. At
Chelmsford, the animal is carved and rests
on a projecting bracket. More prominent,
though not conceived in a very artistic spirit,
is the White Hart at Witham, cut out and
painted on a huge piece of sheet copper.
This is widely known as the most conspicuous
and telling sign on the road from London to
Ipswich.

The White Hart in the Borough, now con-
verted into a club in honour of Sam Weller,
possessed anciently the largest signboard in
London. Perhaps this is why Jack Cade
selected it in 1450 for his headquarters.
Of existing signboards the most elaborate is
the Five Alls at Marlborough, once a very
common subject for the tavern picture. The
first compartment portrays the Queen with
the label, " I rule all." In the second is a
Bishop, " I pray for all," Next comes a
lawyer, " I plead for all," followed by a
truculent soldier, " I fight for all." The last
figure is the taxpayer, " I pay for all." Some
facetious innkeepers added a sixth, the Devil
with the motto, " I take all ! " This sign with
local modifications is not unknown outside
the drinking shops in Holland, and, according

Signs and Signboards 177

to Larbert, a characteristic example may be
seen swinging under the blue sky in the sunny
street of Valetta in Malta. The largest
sign we have ever come across is the tile
painting on the front of the Kentish Drovers in
the old Kent Road.

But the number of these quaint and comical
signs is diminishing every year. The inn-
keeper plies his trade under more difficult
conditions and is glad to accept the tempting
cash offers made to him by collectors. In
place of the old carved figures or painting,
last survival of the days when every building
in a town was distinguished by some badge
or device, the name of a public-house now
generally appears written in gilt letters on
the signboard. Even this is frequently lost
amid the flaring advertisements of the brewer,
and of the various brands of whiskey retailed
in the establishment. In fact, the frequenters
of such a house of entertainment, especially
in the London district, are sometimes ignorant
of its ancient designation, and refer to it either
by the name of the landlord, or of the whole-
sale dealer, "Mooney's" or "Guests/* for
whose business it serves as a local branch.

Landlords of inns near London are not
usually very original in their views of life,

178 Old Country Inns

and rarely advertise any spark of humour.
Perhaps they take their duties to the public
too seriously. Occasionally, however, one
comes across evidence that the keeper of an
inn is sufficiently detached in mind as to
admit within the walls of his house of business
a jest or two in print. These are usually
framed and hung up in the bar, and as they
have never been seen quite new, but are fre-
quently fly-blown and yellow with age, it
would seem to follow that the race of face-
tious landlords has come to an end. In the
Duke of Wellington Inn, near High Beech,
Epping Forest, the following rules hang in the
bar. They are probably from their phraseology
American in origin, and the second was
evidently designed as a sarcastic if not
effectual check upon manners and customs in
business houses of the States.

NOTICE

1. A man is kept engaged in the yard to do all the

CURSING and SWEARING at this establishment.

2. A Dog is kept to do all the BARKING.

3. Our Potman or " Quicker Out " has won seventy-five

prizes, and is an excellent shot with a Revolver.

4. The UNDERTAKER calls every morning FOR ORDERS.

5. The Lord helps those who help themselves ; but the

Lord help those that are caught helping themselves
here.

Signs and Signboards 179

This notice hangs in an old frame over the
door. On an adjoining wall is the following :

OFFICE RULES

1. Gentlemen upon entering will leave the door open or

apologise.

2. Those having no business should remain as long as

possible, take a chair and lean against the wall ;
it will preserve the wall and prevent it falling upon
us.

3. Gentlemen are requested to smoke, especially during

office hours ; tobacco and segars of the finest brands
will be supplied gratis.

4. Spit on the floor, as the spittoons are only for

ornaments.

5. TALK LOUD or WHISTLE, especially when we are

engaged. If this has not the desired effect, SING.

6. If we are in business conversation with anyone,

gentlemen are requested not to wait until we are
disengaged, but join us, as we are particularly fond
of speaking to half a dozen or more at one time.

7. Profane language is expected at all times, especially

if ladies are present.

8. Put your feet on the table, or lean against the desk.

It will be of great assistance to those who are writing.

9. Persons having no business to transact will call often

or excuse themselves.

10. Should anyone desire to borrow money do not fail
to ask for it, as we do not require it for business
purposes, but merely for the sake of lending.

We copied the following from a placard
either in the Windmill at Hollingbourne, or
the Ten Bells at Leeds, in Kent :

180 Old Country Inns

GOOD ADVICE

Call Frequently, Be Good Company,

Drink Moderately, Part Friendly,

Pay Honourably, Go Home • Quietly.

Let these lines be no man's sorrow, pay to-day and
trust to-morrow.

In the General Wolfe at Westerham :
THE LANDLORD'S PUZZLE'

More Shall Trust

Score I Sent

for what I

my And Have

Do Beer If

Pay Clerk Brewers

I " May So

Must Their My

And at Groombridge :

My ale is good, my measure just,
And yet — my friends, I cannot trust.

CHAPTER XIII

HAUNTED INNS

WHY is it that haunted inns are so scarce and
difficult to find ? We have sought for them
far and wide. During thirty years of wander-
ings among the old inns, we have retired for
the night full oft into blackened oak-lined
chambers with secret sliding panels in the
walls, or traps in the ceiling, that offered
golden opportunities for any ghost of enter-
prise ; rooms where heavy tie-beams and dark
recesses cast eerie shadows in the moonlight ;
vast churchlike dormitories with springy
floors which if one jumped out of bed caused
the door incontinently to unlatch and open
in a distinctly ghostlike manner. But no
supernatural visitor has ever favoured us. In
vain we have tried the experiment of sleeping
in bedchambers which the great ones of the
earth have made memorable, from Queen
Elizabeth to Dick Turpin. No cavalier
knight has ever tried to unburden his con-
science to us, no spectral dame has come to
moan and wring her hands with grief, no

181

182 Old Country Inns

clanking chains on the stairs, merely the
peaceful dreamless sleep of the proverbial top.
The learned in occult lore tell us that the
astral body must follow the habits of the
departed to whom it once belonged. It
would therefore prefer private dwellings to
the inns which it merely occupied for a night
or two. Ghosts with a grievance would find
more congenial occupation in annoying sur-
viving relatives rather than the passing
traveller who is not interested in their con-
cerns. Well-informed and intelligent spectres,
of course (unless they had some private end
in view), steer clear of inns altogether. At the
baronial hall, the ghost is a cherished petted
heirloom ; the innkeeper regards him as a
nuisance, driving away the more timid class
of customers, and in case of trouble might
call in the parson to exorcise him with bell,
book and candle. Then, again, in the halcyon
days for the spooks, say a hundred years ago,
the traveller generally drank deeply to the
good of the house. The spectral vision fell
flat when tested on an individual well
inoculated with spirit of a more material
nature. In face of all these discouragements,
the ghosts, as a rule, left hotels and taverns
unmolested.

Haunted Inns 183

One exception is to be found at the Ostrich
at Colnbrook, a beautiful old Elizabethan
coaching inn, retaining near the middle of its
long half-timbered and gabled front, above the
yard gate, the platform by which " the
quality " embarked on the coach. It is an
ideal place for a ghost to take sanctuary,
with many corridors and low-ceilinged
chambers, all lined through with carved
chestnut panelling and twisted pilasters.
There is a Queen's room, said to have been
used by Queen Elizabeth while awaiting the
repair of her coach which had lost a wheel
crossing the ford. Over the mantelpiece is her
coat of arms. But chief est of all is the Blue
Chamber, sacred to the memory of Dick
Turpin. This ubiquitous villain, so tradition
states, once leaped from the first floor window
and escaped into the street when pressed by
the authorities. 1

The ghost is also associated with the Blue
Chamber. His name in the flesh was Thomas
Cole, and his story is told in a very rare work
of Jacobean date, published by Thowe, of
Reading.

1 Some of the rival establishments at Colnbrook
contend that the above honours belong to them, and not
to the Ostrich.

13— (2244)

184 Old Country Inns

Once upon a time in the reign of Henry I,
the Ostrich was already a flourishing inn kept
by a man and his wife who were secretly
robbers and murderers. When a guest of
substance came along and was considered a
suitable victim, the husband would remark
aloud : Wife, I know of a fat pig if you want
one ! " and she would answer, " Well, put him
into the pigsty till to-morrow." Then the
visitor was put into the Blue Chamber above
the kitchen. Underneath the bed there was
a trap-door, so arranged that by pulling out
two iron pins in the kitchen below the whole
fell down, and plunged the unfortunate man
into an immense iron brewing-vat filled with
boiling water. The dead body was then
thrown into the Colne which flows just behind
the house. If other travellers asked for the
murdered man in the morning, they were
told that he had saddled his horse and ridden
away before dawn. As a matter of fact, the
horse had been saddled and taken away to a
barn, some distance off, where the innkeeper
cropped and branded it in such a manner
that recognition was impossible.

Thomas Cole was a Reading clothier, rich
and thrifty. He was in the habit of riding to
London, and sleeping at the Ostrich on his

Haunted Inns 185

return journey, when he usually carried a
considerable sum of money, the proceeds of
his sales. For a long time Cole had been
marked out for the cauldron as he usually
travelled alone. After the manner of most
sixteenth-century legends — Arden of Faver-
sham, for example — the murderers were on
several occasions balked of their prey at the
last moment when the guest had been shown
into the Blue Chamber. Once it was his
friends, Gray of Gloucester and William of
Worcester, who also traded with cloth in
London, and arrived unexpectedly late at
night. Another time a tavern dispute kept
the house in commotion ; a third time a
rumour came that his friend Thomas a
Beckett's house in Chepe was on fire, and he
returned to town. On another visit he was so
ill that a nurse must needs watch by his bedside.
But at last the opportunity came. Poor
Thomas was full of forebodings of some
impending calamity all the evening. He
dictated his will to the landlord, disposing of
his wealth, half to his only daughter, half to
his wife. His goodness failed to move the
hearts of the greedy couple, and that night
the bolts were withdrawn and he was scalded
to death.

186 Old Country Inns

When the innkeeper had disposed of the
body in the river, he found that the merchant's
horse had broken loose and wandered out into
the street, where he was lost for the time being.

Next day, Cole's family, who were expecting
his return, were alarmed at his non-appearance.
They sent his servants to make inquiries at
the inn. The horse was found on the road.
The servants were not satisfied with the
explanations given them, and appealed to the
authorities. On hearing this, the innkeeper
lost courage and fled secretly away ; but his
wife was apprehended and confessed the truth.
It appeared that sixty persons had been done
away with by means of the falling floor. Both
the murderers eventually suffered the extreme
penalties of the law of that period.

On the credit of the above story the ghost of
Thomas Cole enjoyed for centuries a magnifi-
cent notoriety, strutting proudly at midnight
along the corridors and terrifying any unfor-
tunate occupant of the Blue Chamber out of
his wits. But the historical critic has found
him out. There was no cloth trade either in
Reading, Gloucester, or Worcester, when
Henry I was king, nor was Thomas a Beckett
a friend of his, nor did the Blue Chamber
itself exist, indeed there were no beds

Haunted Inns 187

invented for ages afterwards. Colnbrook is
not so called because " Cole was in the
Brook " as was pretended, nor did the river
Colne receive that name because Cole was in
it. If the shade of Mr. Cole has not fled away
altogether, it takes care to hide its diminished
head in some dark corner or cupboard. For
at least ten years this detected impostor has
not shown himself in the Blue Chamber.
As a matter of fact, the Ostrich was a hospice
founded by Milo Crispin about 1 130, and given
in trust to the Benedictines at Abingdon.

About two hundred years ago the owners of
the Hind's Head at Bracknell tried to emulate
the exploits of their rivals at Colnbrook. One
winter's night a stout-hearted farmer was
benighted there and spent a merry evening
round the fire with some jovial companions.
At last a serving-maid showed him up to his
chamber. In a scared whisper she warned
him that he had taken refuge with a band of
villains. By the side of the bedstead was a
trap -door leading into a deep well. He threw
the bed down the trap-door and escaped by
the window. Then he roused the neighbour-
hood. The gang of ruffians were captured
and all executed at Reading. In the well
were found the bones of all their victims.

188 Old Country Inns

The Hind's Head is a pleasant little inn,
with a fine old garden, and we have slept in
the haunted room — slept the sleep of the just
undisturbed by visitors of any kind. But we
have hopes of the Hind's Head, for the present
occupier is a man of taste, who believes that
behind the modern wainscot ingle-nooks and
other treasures of the old time are waiting
to be unveiled. The trap-door and the well
are to be seen in situ, and perhaps when the
old-fashioned appearance of the interior is
restored, the ghosts may be induced to
return.

On the western end of Exmoor there is an
old inn, the A eland Arms, which supernatural
visitants have rendered uninhabitable. It
lies deserted and melancholy, with its ruined
porch and the broken walls of its weed -choked
garden. The wraith of Farmer Mole haunts
its precincts. He was returning from South
Molton market one dark night on a horse
laden with sacks of lime. Many years
afterwards horse and man were dug
out of the bog close by, into which they
must have wandered in the mist and become
engulfed.

For the tale of the " Hand of Glory " we are
indebted to Mrs. Katherine Macquoid, and

Haunted Inns 189

will let it be told in her own words, with only
a few abbreviations. l

The Spital Inn on Stanmore in Yorkshire,
was, in the year 1797, a long narrow building
kept by one George Alderson. Its lower
storey was used as stabling, for the stage-
coaches changed horses at the inn ; the upper
part was reached by a flight of ten or twelve
steps leading up from the road to a stout
oaken door, and the windows, deeply recessed
in the thick walls, were strongly barred with
iron.

One stormy October night, while the rain
swept pitilessly against the windows and the
fierce gusts made the casements rattle, George
Alderson and his son sat over the crackling
log fire and talked of their gains at Broughton
Hill Fair ; these gains, representing a large
sum of money, being safely stowed away in a
cupboard in the landlord's bedroom. A
knock at the door interrupted them.

" Open t' door, lass," said Alderson. " Ah
wadna keep a dog out sik a neet as this."

" Eh ! best slacken t* chain, lass," said the
more cautious landlady.

The girl went to the door, but when she saw
that the visitor was an old woman, she bade

1 " About Yorkshire."

190 Old Country Inns

her come in. There entered a bent figure
dressed in a long cloak and hood ; this last
was drawn over her face and, as she walked
feebly to the armchair which Alderson pushed
forward, the rain streamed from her clothing
and made a pool on the oaken floor. She
shivered violently but refused to take off her
cloak and have it dried. She also refused the
offer of food or a bed. She said she was on her
way to the south, and must start as soon as
there was daylight. All she needed was a
rest beside the fire.

The innkeeper and his wife were well used to
wayfarers ; they soon said " Good-night/'
and went to bed ; so did their son. Bella, the
maid, was left alone with the shivering old
woman, who gave but surly answers to her
advances, and the girl fancied that the voice,
though low, was not a woman's. Presently
the wayfarer stretched out her feet to warm
them, and Bella's quick eyes saw under the
hem of the skirt that the stranger wore horse-
man's gaiters. The girl felt uneasy, and in-
stead of going to bed, she resolved to stay up
and watch.

Presently Bella lay down on a long settle
beyond the range of the firelight and watched
the stranger while she pretended to fall asleep.

o

f

Haunted Inns 191

All at once the figure in the chair stirred,
raised its head and listened ; then it rose
slowly to its feet, no longer bent but tall and
powerful looking ; it stood listening for some
time. There was no sound but Bella's heavy
breathing, and the wind and rain beating on the
windows. Then the woman took from the
folds of her cloak a brown withered human
hand ; next she produced a candle, lit it
from the fire, and placed it in the hand.
Bella's heart beat so fast that she could hardly
keep up the regular deep breathing of pre-
tended sleep ; but now she saw the stranger
coming towards her with this ghastly chan-
delier, and she closed her lids tightly. She
felt that the woman was bending over her,
and that the light was passed slowly before
her eyes, while these words were muttered
in the strong masculine voice that had first
roused her suspicions :

" Let those who rest more deeply sleep ;
Let those awake their vigils keep."

The light moved away, and through her
eyelashes Bella saw that the woman's back
was turned to her, and that she was placing
the hand in the middle of the long oak table,
while she muttered this rhyme :

192 Old Country Inns

" O Hand of Glory, shed thy light ;
Direct us to our spoil to-night."

Then she moved a few steps away and
undrew the window curtains. Coming back
to the latter she said :

" Flash out thy light, O skeleton hand,
And guide the feet of our trusty band."

At once the light shot up a bright vivid
gleam, and the woman walked to the door ;
she took down the bar, drew back the bolts,
unfastened the chain, and Bella felt a keen
blast of cold night air rush in as the door was
flung open. She kept her eyes closed, how-
ever, for the woman at that moment looked
at her, and then drawing something from her
gown, she blew a long shrill whistle ; she then
went out at the door and down a few of the
steps, stopped and whistled again, but the
next moment a vigorous push sent her spin-
ning down the steps on to the road below.
The door was closed, barred and bolted, and
Bella almost flew to her master's bedroom
and tried to wake him. In vain, he and his
wife slept on, while their snores sounded
loudly through the house. The girl felt
frantic.

She then tried to rouse young Alderson,
but he slept as if in a trance. Now a fierce

Haunted Inns 193

battery on the door and cries below the
windows told that the band had arrived.

A new thought came to Bella. She ran
back to the kitchen. There was the Hand of
Glory, still burning with a wonderful light.
The girl caught up a cup of milk that stood
on the table, dashed it on the flame and
extinguished it. In one moment, as it seemed
to her, she heard footsteps coming from the
bedrooms, and George Alderson and his son
rushed into the room with firearms in their
hands. As soon as the robbers heard the
landlord's voice bidding them depart, they
summoned him to open the door, and produce
his valuables. Meanwhile young Alderson
had opened the window, and for answer he
fired his blunderbuss down among the men
below.

There was a groan — a fall — then a pause,
and, as it seemed to the besieged, a sort of
discussion. Then a voice called out, " Give
up the Hand of Glory, and we will not harm
you."

For answer young Alderson fired again and
the party drew off. Seemingly they had
trusted entirely to the Hand of Glory, or else
they feared a long resistance, for no further
attack was made. The withered hand

194

Old Country Inns

remained in the possession of the Aldersons
for sixteen years after.

This story, concludes Mrs. Macquoid, was
told to my informant, Mr. Atkinson, by Bella
herself when she was an old woman.

-*& ? - .%

\ —

The Ship, Wingham

CHAPTER XIV

OLD INNS AND THEIR ARCHITECTURE

ALTHOUGH many of our country inns must
in their structural substance date from the
reigns of Edward III and Richard II, and
some, like the Red Lion at Wingham, and the
White Hart at Newark, possess features that
are without doubt fourteenth-century work,
the earliest examples worthy of extended
description and classification date from the
middle of the fifteenth century. The enor-
mous development of trade, and the wealth
of the towns at this period, occasioned the
building of hostelries so magnificent in size and
so well adapted for comfort that they have
often served through the strain and stress of
coaching days. Some of these inns are well
worthy of being compared with the grand
parish churches which the same age has
bequeathed to us.

Hidden behind a corner of the market-
place at Aylesbury is the noble old King's
Head, presenting to a narrow turning its
broad mullioned windows and Tudor entrance

195

Old Inns and their Architecture 197

gate way > The interior has an open spacious
staircase, and a lofty tap-room with massive
oak cornice, and moulded ceiling-ribs meeting
in a carved boss. It is lighted by a magnifi-
cent window, the ancient stained glass in which
represents the arms of England and France
quartered, the arms of Margaret of Anjou,
and numerous heraldic and ecclesiastical
symbols. A strong opinion exists that this
house was a refectory for the Grey Friars ;
others have suggested that it was a hall of one
of the town Guilds, built soon after the
marriage of Henry VI, in 1444. With regard
to the glass, there is some question whether
it was not brought hither from some other
position, especially as one of the heraldic
shields has been reversed during insertion.
But the whole apartment remains very much
in its original state except that the chimney
piece is ordinary and modern.

The yard of the old King's Head is still a
busy picturesque one on market days, but the
scene has lost a delightful background since
the removal of the old galleries.

Even finer in its carvings and the richly-
moulded cornice and ceiling beams is the great
hall in the Bull at Long Melford. Probably
this is a little earlier in date than the

198

Old Country Inns

Aylesbury house. Unfortunately, the beauty of
this exquisite hall is marred by glass partitions

Tap-room at the Bull, Sudbury

and modern wall decoration of an inferior
quality. Three miles away at Sudbury there
is another Bull also of Edwardian date, full

Old Inns and their Architecture 199

of quaint nooks and retaining its original
front, altered only by the insertion of a few
eighteenth-century window frames. It stands
near the site of an old friary, but we are in-
clined to believe that it owes its name, not to a
monastic origin, but to the Black Bull of the
House of Clarence.

Other fine old inns of this period are the
New Inn at Gloucester, built by Abbot Sea-
brook from the designs of John Twyning, a
monk ; the Sun at Peering in Essex, formerly
a manor-house ; and the George at Glaston-
bury, unique in the possession of its original
stone front, bold oriels and richly-traceried
windows. The Crown at Shipton-under-
Wychwood has a fine archway in the Per-
pendicular style and also some mullioned
windows.

Nearer London is the White Hart at Brent-
wood. " There are few hostelries in Eng-
land/' says Albert Smith, "into which a
traveller would sooner turn for entertainment
for himself and animal than that of the
White Hart, whose effigy looks placidly along
the principal street from his lofty bracket,
secured thereto by a costly gilt chain, which
assuredly prevents him from jumping down
and plunging into the leafy glades and

14— <*»44)

200 Old Country Inns

coverts within view. And when you enter the
great gate, there is a friendly look in the old
carved gallery running above the yard, which
speaks of comfort and hospitality ; you think
at once of quiet chambers ; beds into which
you dive, and sink at least three feet down,
for their very softness ; with sweet, clean,
country furniture, redolent of lavender. The
pantry, too, is a thing to see, not so much
for the promise of refection which it discloses,
as for its blue Dutch tiles, with landscapes
thereon, where gentlemen of meditative
minds, something between Quakers and
British yeomen, are walking about in wonder-
ful coats, or fishing in troubled waters ; all
looking as if they were very near connections
of the celebrated pedestrian, Christian, as he
appeared in the old editions of * The Pilgrim's
Progress.'" And the White Hart at Brent-
wood remains a treasure among old inns,
although fate has not been kind to it during
the sixty years since little Fred Scattersgood
found shelter there when running away from
persecution at Merchant Taylors' School.
Depressed Tudor arches, framed in dark oak,
open into each of its two great yards, and an
early Tudor arcading forms the front of the
gallery, a retreat from which the fair dames of

The Kings Head," Loughton, Essex

Old Inns and their Architecture 201

Brentwood were wont to watch the cock-
fightings. Just inside the principal entrance
will be found some excellent renaissance
woodwork.

At Alfriston, in Sussex, is the Star Inn,
small in size, but of the highest interest. On
brackets on each side of the doorway are
mitred figures of St. Giles with a hind and St.
Julian, the patrons of weary wayfarers. A
beam in the parlour is ornamented with a
shield and the sacred monogram, and all
kinds of curious carvings abound in the build-
ing. In the dining-room upstairs, suggestive
of an old ship's cabin, the solid construction
of the fine old roof may be studied. For four
centuries it has borne its coverings of thick
Horsham stone slabs without shifting, and
seems sound enough to resist time for a long
period to come. Antiquarians have supposed
this inn to have been erected as a pilgrim's
hostel, but it seems scarcely probable that
voyagers, even if they landed at Seaford,
would take this route either to Canterbury
or Chichester. It belonged to the Abbey of
Battle, and the many ecclesiastical carvings
may be ascribed to the monkish craftsmen.
Just above a facetious, smiling lion thickly
bedaubed with red paint, and evidently the

202 Old Country Inns

figure-head of a ship stranded on this danger-
ous coast, is the carver's mark showing the
date of the building. A rude heraldic design
on the angle bracket, represents a coronetted
ragged staff supported by a bear and a lion
with a twisted tail. In 1495, Edmund Dud-
ley married Elizabeth Grey, last heiress of
Warwick the " King-maker." The union of
the Green Lion with the Bear and Ragged
Staff was a great event for the Sussex people.
Edmund Dudley was brought up at Lewes
Priory, and the hillfolk were proud of his
success in becoming the chief minister of his
time.

The Maid's Head at Norwich, so far as the
older part of this excellent house is concerned,
is chiefly Elizabethan and early Jacobean ;
thanks to the careful restoration and the
valuable collection of old furniture intro-
duced by Mr. Walter Rye, much of the interior
helps us to realise what an old inn looked
like tWo or three centuries ago. But the
Maid's Head has a more ancient history, and
can boast of a Norman cellar (a relic of the
Bishop's Palace), while in the drawing-room,
a real fifteenth-century fireplace, discovered
in the thickness of the wall, has been opened
up and correctly fitted with dogs and hood.

I

204 Old Country Inns

The panelled billiard-room, cosy Jacobean
bar, and the music gallery in the assembly
room (like the " Elevated Den " in the Bull
at Rochester), are all delightful. The only
fault we can find at the Maid's Head is that
the old inn-yard, now converted into a lounge,
has been roofed in with glass at too low a
level. A much better effect would have been
attained by introducing the glazed protection
high above the galleries, as has been
done in the yard of the Rose and Crown at
Sudbury.

Another Elizabethan inn of note is the Star
at Great Yarmouth, built by a local merchant,
William Crowe, at the end of the sixteenth
century. Here the Nelson Room, so called
from a famous portrait of Lord Nelson, is
beautifully panelled in dark oak. When the
match-boarding was torn down for repairs
about forty years ago the original fireplace and
chimney-piece were discovered and restored.
Over the mantel are the arms of the Merchant
Adventurers who received their charters from
Queen Elizabeth.

The exact date of the Feathers at Ludlow
is not very easy to determine, but it must
have existed before 1609, when Rees Jones
took a lease of the premises ; and the initials

Old Inns and their Architecture 205

11 R. I." on the lockplate probably refer to
him. The splendid carved front with a gallery
of spiral balusters, the studded door, elaborate
ceilings, fireplaces and panelling are, of course,
well known to all students, and illustrated in
every collection. In 1616, there was a cele-
bration in Ludlow of " The Love of Wales
to their Sovereign Prince " ; and from this
event the inn must have received its name.
It is the finest of all the Magpie half-timbered
inns of Cheshire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire.
By the time these lines are in print the
famous " Globe Room " at the Reindeer at
Banbury will have been exported to America,
but a replica in all respects is to be erected in
its place. A copy of the ceiling is already at
the South Kensington Museum.

Many of the great coaching inns of the
Queen Anne and Georgian eras are not lacking
in good proportion and correct classic detail.
But they lack the individuality of the very
old inns, and a long description of them would
interest only the purely architectural stuentd.
The artist will find effects of colour and light-
ing in the mouldering brick cornices at Godal-
ming or Sittingbourne. The old ballrooms
in county towns, now deserted for the modern
Town Hall, and made to do duty as store

206 Old Country Inns

rooms, are always worth peeping into ; and
little survivals of our forefathers' habits of
life are to be detected in the broad staircases
and deep easy window seats. Hotel archi-
tecture continued to follow the fashion, and
even the Greek revival early in the last century
and the later Italian revival had their influence.

Some very curious examples of the Sir
Charles Barry period are to be noted in the
neighbourhood of the Crystal Palace. Fifty
years of wear might make us forgive some of
their eccentricities. Among these, one of the
best from the architectural point of view, is
the little Goat House Hotel in South Norwood,
so named from a famous goat-breeding
establishment which existed on an island of
the Croydon Canal. The portico, cluster of
narrow round-headed windows and slender
Lombardic tower of this building are not bad,
albeit hopelessly exotic. At least they show
an attempt at artistic purpose during the years
when public-house design was generally
mechanical and sordid.

For the very queerest adaptation by a
local builder of the style in vogue during the
Greek revival, a visit must be paid to the
Lisle Castle, on the Dover Road, about three
miles beyond Gravesend.

208 Old Country Inns

Old wayside inns, as a rule, have few archi-
tectural pretensions ; good sound proportion,
breadth of roof, bold chimney breasts, and age
together suffice to make them attractive and
dignified. Internally the tap-rooms are often
panelled, and the ceilings crossed by many
smoke -stained beams ; with here and there
a welcome chimney-corner. Ingle-nooks and
chimney-corners are still fairly numerous even
in the home counties. Surrey can boast of a
good half-dozen ; The Plough at Smallfield,
near Red Hill, the Crown at Chiddingfold,
the White Lion at Warlingham, may be given
as instances — while there are more than one
in that fine old Elizabethan inn, the Clayton
Arms, formerly the White Hart at Godstone.
Leaves Green and Groombridge own two out
of the many scattered about Kent. In
Sussex they are too common to require special
notice.

CHAPTER XV

THE COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER

THE genuine traveller is really the man who
is on business. Even the tourist can scarcely
lay confident claim to the title. Is he not on
pleasure bent ? Is he not going from place to
place merely for the fun of the thing ? Is he
not really a stay-at-home who has ventured
out merely to stretch his legs ? Ask the
keeper of a commercial hotel in a country
town who his customers are. He will tell you
that they are commercial travellers and coffee-
room visitors. The two classes are distinct
in the mind of mine host. One suggests
work, the other play. The commercial man
is bound to travel whether he likes it or not,
the visitor is a fitful amateur amusing
himself by a change from the monotony
of home.

Whoso looks upon the commercial traveller
as a modern production created by the railway
system should listen to the explosion of wrath
from an old hand on the road, who has had
time and inclination to examine into the

209

210 Old Country Inns

history of commerce. " What, no traditions ! "
he will exclaim. " Permit me to call your
attention once more, my friend, to the parable
of the Good Samaritan. Who was he, I
I should like to know, but a commercial
traveller ? Everything points to it. He was
travelling in oil and wine, why else should
he have had them with him ? Notice his
influence with the host of the inn. He was
evidently known there. He could give in-
structions and had enough ready money to
leave two denarii on his departure, with a
reminder that he would be coming again later
on. Then, again, his broad-minded sympathy,
he was certainly no sectarian. Commercial
travellers rarely are. Their calling teaches
them to be friendly to all sorts and conditions
of men. No traditions ? History is full of
incidents which show that the man who
travels with samples is as old as the
hills."

During the eighteenth and early nine-
teenth century it was the bagman who used
the inn. Not a term of opprobrium this by
any means. Think of the immediate fore-
runner of the present-day commercial, sitting
astride a sturdy horse with a well-stocked bag
on each side, facing all weathers, negotiating

The Commercial Traveller 211

all roads, and making a journey of a month
or two at a time. Not an altogether despicable
figure this. There would be nothing
squeamish about his methods, perhaps ;
but he would be equally welcome to his
customers and mine host as a carrier of news
or a purveyor of goods. He travelled horse-
back because the roads he had to go over
were not always suitable for vehicles. It
was not till Macadam that the light spring-
cart became an essential part of his
equipment.

Long after the commencement of railways
the commercial traveller was known as a
bagman. The Daily Telegraphy in the year
1865, seemed in doubt as to whether its
readers would recognize the more modern
name without some explanation, for it refers
to " a traveller — I mean a bagman, not a
tourist — arriving with his samples at a pro-
vincial town." At that time, of course,
commercial travellers were increasing in num-
bers ; but inasmuch as railways only con-
nected up towns on certain routes, the light
cart was used constantly to go the round of
outlying districts. Indeed, to-day, there are
commercial travellers who still use the older
method of progress for work in parts of

212 Old Country Inns

counties where railway communication is poor
and the service of trains intermittent. The
motor-car is also an occasional means of
conveyance for travellers. When first it was
so used, tradesmen looked askance at it as
being likely to frighten the horses of carriage
customers.

The country inn began to cater specially
for business men early in the nineteenth
century, and the establishment of the com-
mercial room was the ultimate result of the
special accommodation which innkeepers
offered to travellers.

Let no unwary casual visitor, even to-day,
imagine that all rooms except the bedchambers
of an inn in a country town are open to him.
The commercial room is a private apartment
reserved for privileged representatives of
business concerns. A ritual has grown up
which is strictly observed by those whose right
it is to make use of its many conveniences.
Notice the formality of greeting which a late
comer extends to the president of the table
at the one o'clock dinner. " Mr. President,
may I be permitted to join you ? " or " Mr.
President, may I have the honour of joining
this company ? " " With pleasure, sir/' The
head of the table invites the company to join

The Commercial Traveller 213

him at wine. " Well, gentlemen, what do you
say to a bottle of sherry to begin with ? "
And later on — " Now gentlemen, suppose we
have a bottle of port." Here is indicated a
spaciousness of life, a dignity and ease which
the rapid pushful customs of to-day are hust-
ling into the past. But although the long
wine dinners in the commercial room, where
every traveller was considered good for at
least a pint, are almost over, the ceremonial is
still to a great extent kept up. At one time
not so long ago, a diner paid for his share
of the wine consumed whether he drank it or
not ; but the spread of teetotalism, the
establishment of Temperance Hotels and the
gradual curtailment of the time spent on
dinner, as well as the keen competition which
compelled every man on the road to make as
much of the afternoon as he did of the morning,
led to a freer personal liberty in the con-
sumption of and payment for liquor. Now-
adays, a commercial traveller orders and pays
for what he likes. There is a generally
understood rule that the traveller longest
in the hotel shall officiate as president, and
should an entirely fresh set of arrivals enter
the commercial room at dinner-time, the first
to come in takes the head of the table as

214 Old Country Inns

president , or chairman, as he is more commonly
called to-day. The custom of toasting the
Sovereign at dinner, at one time common,
has now fallen into disuse. In places where
the Sunday commercial dinner is still an
institution — return tickets on the railways at
a single fare, and express trains have largely
done away with it — the old time formalities
are still kept up, for Sunday is a day which
admits of plenty of leisure and opportunity for
ceremonial. Grace used to be pronounced by
the president, and a story goes that on one
occasion — perchance on many subsequent
occasions — at a suggestion from one of the
diners that Mr. President should " now
say grace/' the head of the table arose
and inquired, " Is there a clergyman
present ? No ? Thank God/' and resumed
his seat.

One good custom which still survives and
is likely to do so, is the penny collection in the
Commercial Room for the Commercial
Travellers' Schools and the Commercial
Travellers' Benevolent Association. This col-
lection is taken daily at every dinner in the
commercial room all over the country, and
it is largely from the proceeds that these
institutions are supported. A sidelight on

The Commercial Traveller 215

custom may be observed in the fact that in
many hotels now the collection is taken at
breakfast to ensure every traveller being
present. The midday dinner became less
well attended, and this led to a serious
diminution in the receipts when once travellers
began to use restaurants and take advantage
of local travelling facilities to visit customers
at some distance from headquarters. It is
common for the landlord of the inn to take
charge of the money collected. The president
of the table enters the amount, divided into
equal portions into two books and fixes his
initials, the proprietor of the establishment,
on the annual remittance to the Association,
receiving a votes allotment which can be
utilized on behalf of any applicants for the
privileges of the two philanthropic bodies.

No one is permitted to smoke in the com-
mercial room until after 9 p.m., a rule which
is observed far more strictly than those
unacquainted by actual experience with the
traveller's life might think. The custom of
using slippers of the inn, which indispens-
able " Boots " keeps often at his own expense,
is peculiar to the commercial room, though
many travellers now carry their own foot
wear for the fireside with them. At the

15— (2244)

216 Old Country Inns

Red Horse, l Stratford-on-Avon, " Boots " is
credited with having as fine a selection of
comfortable slippers as is to be found in the
kingdom.

Convenience for those who use the room led
to the provision of a big table in the centre,
with small writing-tables round the walls.
In old inns this simple method of furnishing
is still retained ; but more pretentious estab-
lishments now have a separate writing-room.
Upon the landlord rests the responsibility of
providing many small details in equipment,
such as books of reference, time-tables, ink-
stands, paper and pens. At the Old Steyne
Hotel, Brighton, the landlord — himself an old
Commercial — even goes to the length of pro-
viding an open box of penny and halfpenny
stamps which travellers may take from as they
will, paying for what they use by placing the
money in another box which stands close by.
Probably in no other room of an inn could such
a convenience be extended without abuse. At

1 Larwood and Hotten, in " The History of Sign-
boards," state that the sign of the Red Horse in their day
was almost extinct. Longfellow's description of " The
Wayside Inn " contains the lines :

" And half effaced by rain and shine,
The red horse prances on the sign."

The Commercial Traveller 217

the same hotel a special stand of well-selected
canes is always kept for travellers who may
wish to use them in their walks of relaxation
on the front.

Beyond these small matters of detail of
equipment the commercial room has little
of interest. Hear the description of the
author of " The Ambassadors of Commerce/'
who prefaces what he has to say with the
remark that " the cosiness and comfort of
the commercial room in the old -fashioned hotel
are by no means due to its architectural form,
its size, ventilation, or adaptation to its
special purposes — most of them having none
of these requisites — but to its association/1

etc " The room it self is not hung

with choice works of art in either oil or water
colours/' We seem, by the way, to have seen
many a terrible old oleograph. " The pro-
prietor being more desirous of advertising
noted whiskys and popular bitter ales, he
covers his walls with framed advertisements
of these beverages. These, with a coloured
print of the Commercial Travellers' Schools
at Pinner, and a notice of the dinner hour,
complete the picture. Add to the same a
dozen or more half-dried overcoats, mackin-
toshes, whips, rugs, hats of all conceivable

218 Old Country Inns

shapes, and you have some idea of the orna-
mentations and fine art decoration of an old-
fashioned commercial room/1 Not an alto-
gether unattractive picture either. It smacks
of the old mid- Victorian times when mahogany
and horsehair were the chief stock in trade of
the furnisher. A day may come when this
much abused combination of woodwork and
upholstery will be sought after. Stranger
things have happened. Mahogany and horse-
hair chairs and sofas are rapidly approaching
that age limit beyond which they will certainly
become interesting, and one can see in
imagination the advertisements of the second-
hand dealers who will describe them as
" genuinely old/' In that day many an old
commercial room will be made to yield up
its treasures to the insatiable greed of collec-
tors. It is not uncommon, however, to find
odd pieces of eighteenth-century furniture
in the travellers' room to-day. We have
come across several old sideboards which
were obviously of not later date than
Sheraton's time, though in all probability the
famous cabinet-maker had but little to do
with their origin.

It is the experience of most commercial
travellers that the temperance hotel, quite

The Commercial Traveller 219

apart from the fact that it supplies no alcoholic
liquors, is only very rarely comparable to the
fully-licensed house. Tradition may have
something to do with the comfort of the old
inn, and temperance hotels have no tradi-
tions whatever. Their inception was due to a
protest, and even to-day, with the temperance
movement so well understood and appreciated,
the " hotels " which advertise themselves as
being dogmatically averse to a particular
form of refreshment, more often than not
seem unable adequately to provide comforts
about which there can be no question what-
ever. We have known many temperance
hotels which began with a flourish of trumpets
and a long list of influential patrons ; a few
years later they had become slovenly, dis-
reputable, and even in one or two cases,
immoral. An inn may have peculiarities, it
may have character through history and
old associations, but one thing it should
certainly never possess, and that is a narrow
shibboleth.

CHAPTER XVI

THE NEW INN AND ITS POSSIBILITIES

WHATEVER developments may be in store in
the future will depend almost entirely as to
how far the licensing authorities and the
various bodies formed for the purpose of
furthering the cause of temperance, to say
nothing of trade protection societies, can
sink their differences and come to some sort
of understanding as to the best type of inn
for public convenience. Some temperance
reformers have dreamt of a land without
public -houses, and even to-day it is not at all
uncommon to hear a lecturer in his enthusiasm
for the cause of total abstinence express
the wish that every drop of intoxicating liquor
in the country could be run into the sewers
to-morrow, and every public -house at the same
time have its shutters put up. Of course
such a dream is impossible of fulfilment, and
by far the bulk of English people are heartily
glad it is so. On the other hand, there is a
small body of opinion which thinks that public -
house licences should be dispensed with

220

The New Inn and Its Possibilities 221

altogether, that anybody should be permitted
to sell intoxicating spirits if he thinks fit, and
that the removal of restriction would tend
towards temperance. This also is a condition
of things which is not in the range of practical
politics.

What, however, does seem a hopeful possi-
bility is that a middle course should become
more generally accepted in the direction of
improvement of public-houses and their
conduct, not for the sake of " the trade " on
the one hand, nor for the temperance societies
on the other, but for the benefit of the public.
On the whole, the number of people, even in
the temperance ranks, who look upon the
public-house as of the devil, to be destroyed
wherever possible, is very small, and it is
also fair to say that among publicans the
attitude of mind which regards the possession
of a licence as merely permission to sell as
much intoxicating liquor as possible is becom-
ing rarer every day. The trade has been
forced, not without some grumbling, to re-
cognize tea as a form of liquid refreshment
which may legitimately be called for by the
traveller ; and although there are still, in
out of the way country districts, wayside inns
where the kettle never seems to boil, and,

222 Old Country Inns

according to the veracious landlord, no fire
is ever kept up in the afternoon, it is usually
easy to obtain tea on demand in most licensed
houses. What has led to this no doubt is
the discovery that tea may be provided at
a profit.

Of late years traffic on the turnpike road
has become thicker and thicker. But the
travellers of to-day are not those of a hundred
or even fifty years ago, any more than they
are the pilgrims of the thirteenth century.
No use offering them strong ale for breakfast
or rum punch at every halt. As well might
one hawk the metal charms which found such
ready sale seven hundred years ago on the
great roads to holy shrines. The modern
pilgrim comes on motor-car and bicycle and
the relic of his trip is the nimble picture post-
card. Of course, one must not forget that
the country inn is not entirely kept up as a
convenience to travellers. It must minister
besides to the permanent residents of the
neighbourhood. The regular customer must
be studied, and he has the comforts of home
near by. He does not appear to want them
in the bar of the Blue Lion or George the
Fourth. Sufficient for him if he find civility
and an opportunity of discussing a tankard of

The New Inn and its Possibilities 223

ale and a pipe in company with his friends.
But for all that, travellers continue to
increase and the faster they go the quicker
they come.

A motorist or cyclist thinks nothing of an
extra mile or two in search of good cheer.
This is a point which may well be commended
to landlords of inns which are not in the
direct line of traffic. The number of people,
too, who take a positive pleasure in going out
of their way to search for unfrequented
hostelries is on the increase. Motor-cars
have to a great extent driven cyclists on to
the by-roads, and in planning a tour the rider
of the humbler machine will take any amount
of trouble to avoid main roads in his anxiety
to avoid dust and obtain peace and quiet-
ness. This tends to increase the popularity
of half-forgotten inns in remoter districts.
Where a generation ago the advent of a
traveller from a distance was an event to
be remembered, nowadays the ubiquitous
motorist and cyclist may turn up any
moment. It is to the interest, therefore, of
rural innkeepers to study him.

Another fact to be remembered, is the
increase in the number of lady travellers on
the roads, and ladies quite rightly will not

224 Old Country Inns

stand any sort of makeshift accommodation.
Where a man will thankfully accept his pot
of beer and bread and cheese in an evil
smelling bar parlour, a woman will prefer to
sit under a tree outside and do without re-
freshment until it can be obtained in reason-
able cleanliness and comfort. Women, as a
rule, travel under the protection of men, and
depend upon their escort for the discovery
of nice places in which to take meals. Men,
therefore, have to find them, and many a
little inn which might profit by frequent
parties of both sexes is passed by in favour
of a more pretentious establishment further
on, not because the accommodation is not
extensive and elaborate at the smaller place,
but because of lack of cleanliness, plain
reasonable fare, and some attention to the
amenities of life.

Quite a small thing will turn a lady traveller
against a wayside inn. Those horrible, nar-
row swing doors, which are only too common,
are quite enough to make a woman decide
against the inn which is so unfortunate as to
have them barring the only entrance. No
man ever pushed through such doors with
dignity, and a woman feels instinctively that
to struggle with them involves almost a loss

The New Inn and its Possibilities 225

of self-respect. A woman likes to enter a
house. She does not like to slip in furtively,
and she feels, perhaps unconsciously, that there
is a hint of the surreptitious in these doors
in the way they open just wide enough on
pressure and close again immediately as if
to hide a misdemeanour. No woman, either,
will stand and drink even the mildest of non-
alcoholic liquors if she can possibly help it.
She prefers to sit down. The ordinary bar,
therefore, has no attractions for her. Even
in a railway refreshment room, where hurry
excuses most things, a woman will only stand
under compulsion. It is not that she really
wants to sit down through weariness, for she
may have been sitting for hours in a railway
carriage. But she has an instinct for pro-
priety and conduct. If tea shops, which are
so largely patronized by women, had a high
bar like public-houses, with as little sitting
accommodation, as is often to be found in
licensed establishments, they could not pos-
sibly keep open. Why it should be customary
to stand up to drink a glass of beer and sit
down to take a cup of tea is a mystery.

Let us admit and welcome the efforts of the
old Georgian coaching inns to keep abreast
of the times. Let us cheerfully accept the

226 Old Country Inns

attempts of mine host to put life into an old
musty coffee-room and bar parlour. Con-
servatism is not without value at the inn
with a history, and the landlord for his own
sake must step warily. Let no iconoclast
interfere too violently with the worm-eaten
glories of old oak and mahogany or seek to
disparage the solid virtues of the great round
of beef, or the appetising ingredients of the
game pie. Tradition in such things is well
worth preserving.

But it is the licensed house which never had
much of a history, which has nothing interest-
ing to preserve, whose justification for exis-
tence is solely on account of its use to the
community as a house of call, that so often
requires alteration. The new inn, moreover,
the building itself, erected here in the
twentieth century for the accommodation of
modern people, must be as suitable for its
purpose as the old coaching -house was for the
stiff, befuddled travellers who, a hundred
years ago, alighted from the " Royal Mail "
or " Eclipse " for a much-needed night's
repose on their journey to London. It is plain
that people use the roads to-day quite as much
for pleasure as business. The railway takes
the business man from one end of England to

The New Inn and its Possibilities 227

the other, faster, cheaper, and more comfort-
ably than even the motor-car has yet achieved
on the turnpike. Relaxation from work
means for many thousands a journey by
road, and it is in making suitable preparation
for those who take their pleasure in this way
that the new inn should devote at least half
of its energies. The time may not be ripe in
England for the adoption of the cafe system of
the Continent. Perhaps the climate is some-
what against it. But some improvements,
which a study of the French and German
methods would suggest, might easily be taken
in hand. The argument of the old teetotaller,
not always expressed, perhaps, but certainly
present, was that the more uncomfortable
and disreputable the public-house the less
temptation there would be to go into it.
One can understand the point of view as with
an effort one can realise the horror of the
Puritans for anything in the form of an image
in a Church. But people do not want nowa-
days to use the inn as a place in which to get
drunk ; a drunken man, to say nothing of a
drunken woman, is a universal object of pity
and scorn. What is demanded is a wholesome,
clean and pleasant place in which to have
something to eat and drink without being

228 Old Country Inns

told by anyone, publican or teetotaller, what
form the refreshment shall take.

Herein is one of the reasons for the move-
ment in favour of reformed public-houses.
The People's Refreshment House Association,
Ltd., which has now over seventy public-
houses under its management in different
parts of the country has shown how licensed
premises may be improved and made to pay
at the same time. Proof of this is to be found
in the balance-sheet of the Association which
has shown a regular annual payment of its
maximum dividend of five per cent, since
1899, with over £1,000 placed to reserve. Of
course, the Association is frankly a temper-
ance body, but it would be just as well if
those people who shy at the idea of public-
houses becoming controlled by bigotry would
consult the dictionary and discover for them-
selves the real meaning of the word temper-
ance. Having done so, they will, perhaps,
realise that in pursuit of moderation there is
no reason whatever why the interests of " the
trade/' the reformer, and the public should
not be identical, for all these prefer the tem-
perate man to the drunkard. The fact that
about 80 per cent, of the licensed houses of
England are tied to brewers should not stand

I

s

I

The New Inn and its Possibilities 229

in the way of improvement ; indeed, in some
cases, particularly in the provision and upkeep
of suitable premises, brewers have done more
than could possibly be undertaken by private
owners or the public -house Trusts of which,
by the way, there is one now in nearly every
county. Without going into the many vexed
questions, most of which are matters for the
trade alone, surrounding the tied house, it may
not unreasonably be hoped that the brewer will
see more and more in the future how his duty
to the public and his interests alike demand a
broader and more enlightened policy than the
crude idea of monopoly of sale.

Improvements, however, cannot be entered
upon with much hope of success without the
sympathy of the licensing justices, and it is as
much to be desired that they should recognize
that the public interest lies in the direction
of the reformed public-house as that the
brewer should realise that licensed premises
are not solely to be run as drinking shops.
The restrictions in very many parts of Eng-
land which have been put in the way of
improvements and extensions are absurd.
Wherever specially free facilities have been
granted for the sale of intoxicating liquor —
as at the White City in 1908 — nothing has

230 Old Country Inns

resulted which in any way caused the authori-
ties to regret having trusted the public not
to make beasts of themselves. The Bill
introduced by Lord Lamington in the House
of Lords crystallised the views of reformers,
who desire to make the public-house more
attractive. It provided that licensing
justices should not interfere with the pro-
vision of accommodation for the supply of
tea, coffee, cocoa, or food ; with the sub-
stitution of chairs and tables for bars ; with
the provision of games, newspapers, music,
or gardens, or any other means of reasonable
recreation. It also asked that the Licensing
Bench should allow the improvements of
premises in the direction of making them
more open and airy than at present and more
healthy generally. There are numerous
cases in which the action of justices in refusing
to grant facilities for improvement has been
almost incomprehensible, and amply justified
the implied rebuke contained in the Bill.
In London the continental cafe — or rather
an English adaptation of the idea — has been
established with success, and though the
metropolis is commonly judged by other
standards than those of the countryside, the
way in which the cafe has been received seems

The New Inn and its Possibilities 231

to indicate not only the desire for freer and
more enlightened management, but also the
possession by the public of sufficient moral
fibre to make use of the increased facilities
temperately and in reason.

New inns have been erected in recent years
—not many of them it is true — with the object
of supplying the wants of to-day in a liberal
and broad-minded way. Occasionally the
assistance of architects of acknowledged posi-
tion has been enlisted in making the buildings
themselves more attractive and less vulgar
than has been only too common, and if the
effect of environment upon morality and
behaviour counts for anything these new inns
should be an improvement in every way upon
the bulk of those built at any rate during the
Victorian period. The inn at Sandon, on
Lord Harrowby's estate, may be mentioned
as a case in point. The Fox and Pelican at
Haslemere, the architects of which were
Messrs. Read and Macdonald, is another,
which has, by the way, a sign painted by Mr.
Walter Crane. There is the Skittles Inn at
Letchworth, designed by Messrs. R. Barry
Parker, and Raymond Unwin. In this last
instance the conditions under which the
building was erected were much easier than

16— (2044)

232 Old Country Inns

those which commonly obtain in older settled
districts, where many interests have to be
considered. At Garden City the question
regarding the sale of alcoholic liquors is one
on which there is considerable divergence of
view. About the necessity for providing a
well-designed and conducted house for the
general refreshment of travellers and as a
centre for social intercourse there would
appear, however, to have been no doubt
whatever. The Skittles is referred to here
simply as a nicely-planned building of very
attractive appearance which seems to embody
most of the improvements one would wish to
see in the design of modern inns. The archi-
tects have contrived cleverly to combine the
idea of the continental cafe and the English
country inn. The rooms are large and airy,
there is plenty of seating accommodation,
and a billiard- room is one of the attractions.
There is an entire absence of ornamental
decoration, a form of embellishment which
still continues to appear in nine out of every
ten newly equipped public -houses, in the
country as well as in towns. Of course,
it is perfectly plain that with a new house of
refreshment which is not to hold a licence,
anything may be done. Directly an architect

The New Inn and its Possibilities 233

is commissioned to design a fully-licensed
inn his difficulties commence. He is hedged
about by all sorts of restrictions. It is
inconceivable, however, that the cause of
true temperance can be injured by the pro-
vision of a good, convenient building for a
licensed victualler's trade, instead of the
vulgar atrocity which is so common.

It is not at all certain that the classifica-
tion of compartments such as saloon bar,
private bar, public bar, tap-room, bar parlour,
and so on, is not out of harmony with modern
requirements. No doubt this division has its
conveniences, in the same way that the three
classes of compartments, which some railway
companies still keep up is found on the whole
of benefit. But, to take the cafe again as an
illustration, there appears to be no necessity
there for such rigid distinctions, and many of
the greater railway companies have found no
ill results from the total elimination of at
least second class. Some of the new tube
railways have only one class, and if one
form of public convenience is found to answer
without class distinction, why not another ?

Some of the new inns which have archi-
tectural character have been disfigured by
flaring advertisements. The licensed trade

234 Old Country Inns

should know whether publicity of this kind
given to particular brands of ale and spirits,
on the whole contributes to the good of the
house on which the announcements are dis-
played ; but there can be little doubt that one
result is to vulgarize the building. In cases
where the landlord of the property sets his
face against advertising of this kind, the inn
seems by contrast to proclaim its respecta-
bility and on that account must attract some
custom, at all events. A very good building,
as yet not spoilt by advertisements, is the Bell.
on the high road between the Wake Arms and
Epping, and another is the White Horse,
Stetchworth, Newmarket, which Mr. C. F. A.
Voysey designed for Lord Ellesmere. The
Wheatsheaf, Loughton, is a new inn designed
by Mr. Horace White, which is as yet free
from objectionable signboards, and is a very
good type of building for the smaller country
public. There are also various good inns de-
signed by Mr. P. Morley Horder, in Gloucester-
shire, and The George and Dragon, Castleton,
erected some sixteen years ago, is a licensed
house of excellent design, by Mr. W. Edgar
Wood.

For a model wayside inn of the smaller
class, where the internal treatment shows

The New Inn and its Possibilities 235

good taste with the utmost simplicity com-
mend us to the White Hart at West Wickham.
It replaces a very ancient wooden house
which had proved past repair, and is probably
unique amongst modern inns in that it is
designed for the convenient drawing of all
the malt liquors direct from the wood.
Another more ambitious house by the same
architects (Messrs. Berney & Son) at Elmers
End, with an elaborate half-timbered front,
recalling Black Forest architecture, has antici-
pated the requirements of the Children's
Act. The well-proportioned tea room is
approached by a colonnade at the side of the
building and isolated from the bars.

Among brewers who have had the foresight
to erect inns of better accommodation and
more pleasing design than most of those put
up during the latter part of last century
are Messrs. Godsell & Co., of Stroud, an
example of whose houses we illustrate in the
Greyhound Inn ; and the Stroud Brewery Co.,
whose Prince Albert at Rodborough, Glouces-
tershire, and the Clothiers' Arms, are excellent
specimens of the modern country inn. These
three were from the designs of Mr. P. Morley
Horder. Good taste is by no means lacking
in some of the many houses owned by Messrs.

236 Old Country Inns

Nalder & Collyer, Ltd., in Kent, Surrey,
and Sussex. This firm have also restored the
old-fashioned type of signboards.

Other inns of recent date and of distinctive
design are the Red Lion, King's Heath,
Worcestershire, by Messrs. Bateman & Bate-
man ; the Wentworth Arms, Elmesthorpe,
Leicestershire, by Mr. C. F. A. Voysey ; the
George, Hayes, Kent, by Mr. Ernest Newton ;
the Duck-in-the-Pond, Harrow Weald, by
Mr. R. A. Briggs; the Maynard Arms, Bag-
worth, Leicester, by Messrs. Everard & Pick \
the remodelled White Hart at Sonning-on-
Thames, by Mr. W. Campbell Jones ; the Dog
and Doublet, Sandon ; the Hundred House,
Purslow, Shropshire (a modern reconstruc-
tion) ; the Green Man, Tunstall, Suffolk ; the
Old White House and the Elm Tree at Oxford,
by Mr. Henry T. Hare ; and various temperance
inns, amongst which are the Ossington Coffee
House, Newark, by Messrs. Ernest George &
Yeates ; the Bridge Inn, Port Sunlight, by
Messrs. Grayson & Ould (now fully licensed) ;
and the Bournville Estate public-house, by Mr.
W. Alexander Harvey. In London two finely
designed interiors are the Coal Hole, in the
Strand, by Mr. W. Colcutt, and the Copt Hall,
inCopthall Avenue, by Mr. P. Morley Horder.

CHAPTER XVII

INN FURNITURE

IT will not come as any surprise to readers
who have so far dipped with us into the
pages of the past, to learn that mediaeval
inns, and indeed those of the fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries, have very little
to show in the way of furniture. Our ances-
tors had far less done for them when they
put up for the night than we are accustomed
to to-day in the most primitive districts.
Travellers did not even expect a bed. They
were thankful enough if they could get some
sort of rough bedstead on which to lay their
own bed which they brought with them. Of
course, these were people of some means.
Whenever Royalty travelled the train of
waggons required to convey furnishing
equipment frequently extended to formidable
dimensions. On the other hand, the accu-
mulation of wealth in the sixteenth century
soon began to raise the standard of furnishing
at the inn, and a diary kept by a Dutch
physician named Levinus Lemnius, who made

237

238 Old Country Inns

an adventure into England during Elizabeth's
reign, is worth quoting as an indication of the
rapid improvement which was taking place.
The good doctor evidently had not been used
to luxuries, for he says : ' The neate cleanli-
ness, the exquisite fineness, the pleasaunte
and delightful furniture in every poynt for
the household, wonderfully rejoyced me, their
nosegayes, finely entermingled with sundry
sortes of fragreunte flowers in their bed-
chambers and privy roomes with comfortable
smell cheered mee up and entirely delyghted
all my sences." He probably stayed at the
best hostelries which could be found, and it
would be unwise to conclude that all inns of
the period had so many charms as those to
which he refers.

One feature of the furnishing of old inns
which adds not a little to the picturesqueness
of the interiors is the high-backed settle,
with wings or arms. This is universal all
over England. It varies considerably in
different localities, for the local handicrafts-
man has worked according to tradition, and
he has also in most cases made the settle for a
particular place and to serve a special purpose.
Of course, the original reason for its design
was to keep out draughts from the constantly

Inn Furniture 239

opening door, and this purpose is still strong
enough to make the settle a very convenient,
not to say necessary, fixture in most inns, in
spite of all sorts of modern draught-excluding
devices. It scarcely seems likely that the
high -backed settle will ever be entirely
superseded. It is not particularly comfort-
able according to present-day ideas of comfort
in seats, which seem to revolve round uphol-
stery. But it is very clean. It will not
harbour dust, and if well made it will stand
the assaults of time for centuries. The old
Elizabethan and Jacobean settles were ex-
tremely heavy. It was evident in those days
that sturdiness was inseparable from strength,
and considering the possible rough usage to
which seats in the inn might well on occasion
be put, the heavy timbers of which they were
constructed seem to have been well advised.
They very often had fine carving, and
were constructed with the seat form-
ing a lid to the boxed-in lower part. It
was in the eighteenth century that settles
became of little account, and they were then
plainly made by carpenters simply to serve
a useful purpose. There is a good example
of a carved settle in the Union Inn, Flyford
Flavel, Worcestershire ; and in many an old

240 Old Country Inns

inn in Berkshire, a county which has retained
its ancient character perhaps more than any
other, are heavy old oak settles guarding the
warm fireside. In the tap-room of the
Green Dragon, Combe St. Nicholas, near Chard,
is a settle finely carved of fifteenth-century
origin. Judging by its character it must at
one time have been in some ecclesiastical build-
ing. The Green Dragon was monastic.
The settle after a time developed into the
fixed partition, its back stretched up to the
ceiling, and a door was placed at the end, the
partition being continued beyond to the
opposite wall. Considerations of light some-
times prevented this being carried out entirely
but a modern compromise was effected by
glazing the screen above the high settle back
and putting glass panels in the door. The
development of the ingle-nook came about
through chimney-corner and settle being
combined in one feature.

The settle in some form or other is the best
possible seat for the inn, particularly if
space is limited. It might be pleasanter to
have small tables and chairs, but in many
an old building there is only enough room for
a couple of long seats and a table. A long
bench upon which people can sit in a row

•5,

Inn Furniture 241

side by side is the best seat in existence for
saving space. Light furniture is utterly
unsuitable for inns. For one thing it is
usually nothing like strong enough, and
even if it be it commits an artistic sin in look-
ing too fragile for its purpose. Take the
respective merits of the very many forms in
which the old Windsor chair has been made,
and the modern bent-wood chair. Now the
latter is without doubt the strongest seat for
its weight which has been invented in modern
times. It is one of the few successes in chair-
making which can claim to be the direct out-
come of scientific methods. It has absolutely
no ancestors whatever, and can attach itself
to no tradition. It is a bald product of the
application of science to furniture, and when
the Austrian inventor finally made it perfect
he had achieved utility, nothing more, nothing
less. The bent- wood chair is in pretty nearly
every concert hall in the world. It has
conquered completely the restaurants and
cafes of the Continent, and it is to be seen
often in old inns of the English countryside.
Now, the last is a regrettable fact. The
Austrian bent-wood chair or settee looks
positively effeminate in the country inn with
its thin polished legs, its slender-looking back,

242 Old Country Inns

and perforated, mechanically made seat.
Something is called for of a greater weight of
timber, which shall look more in keeping with
the building and more in accordance with the
solid unimpassioned, phlegmatic way of life
of rural districts. Let us have the chair or
settle made by the village wheelwright or
carpenter, rather than the product of an
Austrian factory.

But in the Windsor chair we have a type
which can certainly compete with bent-wood
in strength if not in lightness. The Windsor
chair, besides, is capable of much greater
variety of form than the Austrian production.
It has a tradition of its own and has as great
a celebrity as its more modern competitor.
It is heavier and sturdier. It savours some-
what of the kitchen, but although it cannot
be regarded as the last word on art craftsman-
ship, it is not altogether unpleasant to look
upon, and is much more comfortable in use
than many a chair with greater pretensions
to artistic appearance. It is still made by
hand and costs very little. In the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries the smaller inns
contained many chairs, a few of which are still
to be met with, simply made by the village
joiner on the lathe. They had plain wooden

Inn Furniture 243

seats, and there was very great diversity of
" members " in the turned rails. They called
for comparatively little skill to make, and
beyond their bare proportions showed small
ingenuity in making the form comfortable for
the body. Frequently they had rush seats.
Within recent years chairs of this kind have
been sought for and made the base of many
extremely interesting seats, designed and
constructed by modern craftsmen.

The oldest form of inn table is the trestle.
It dates back to the Middle Ages, and although
nothing like so much used to-day, it still
survives in many an old tap-room. It was
originally even a simpler affair than it is now,
being merely a board with movable trestles
underneath. It could readily be moved and
pushed away if space were required on special
occasion. At the Plough Inny Birdbrook,
Essex, an old thatched house, is a red brick
floored tap-room which contains several fine
trestle tables and settles of simple design
and perfect utility.

But the simple table, chair and settle,
beyond which the public part of the inns of the
Middle Ages and the smaller alehouses for
centuries were unfurnished, except, perhaps,
for a stool or backless bench, are nothing

244 Old Country Inns

compared with the splendid legacy of sixteenth
and seventeenth-century carved oak furniture
still left to us in many of the historic hostelries
in the shires. Later enthusiasm in collecting
has no doubt been responsible for the fine
specimens of furniture such as those to be seen
at the Lygon Arms, Broadway, Worcester-
shire, and it is extremely difficult to say with
certainty how many of the genuinely old
pieces to be found in other famous inns
originally belonged to the building. There is
the Feathers, Ludlow, where in the beautiful
old dining-room is a fine collection of furniture,
hardly in accord with the period of the ceiling,
the carved oak overmantel, and other per-
manent features of the room. The Jacobean
and Chippendale chairs are the result of
enlightened purchase in later days. One of
the finest Jacobean staircases in an inn is
that at the Red Lion, Truro.

Very little furniture of the Renaissance
period, from the Elizabethan carved oak to
the mahogany of the later eighteenth century,
is peculiar to inns. An exception is the bar,
which, of course, was a fixture and part of
the inn structure. Our modern bar with its
almost invariable ugliness, its row of vertical
handles for drawing beer, and its aggressive

Inn Furniture 245

cash register, is a poor survival of the Jaco-
bean bar, an example of which is still in
existence at the Maid's Head, Norwich. It
is worthy of recollection that the high stools
which enable one to sit at a bar are quite
of modern origin. Bar lounging evidently
did not become a habit until the nineteenth
century. People sat down and had their
refreshments at ease.

A table which was sometimes found in
Jacobean inns of the larger and more impor-
tant kind was the one upon which the game of
" shovel-board " was played. " Shovel-board "
tables were very long, sometimes even as much
as ten yards. They were about three feet
or three feet six inches wide, and the game
played resembles in principle our own deck
billiards. Indeed the " shovel-board" table
is thought to be the direct ancestor of the
modern billiard table, without which, of
course, no inn of any size nowadays is com-
plete. The extreme vagueness of the early
history of the game of billiards, however,
scarcely justifies any dogmatic statement as
to its relationship with " shovel-board." A
Charles II billiard table with a wooden bed,
cork cushions, and corkscrew legs is in the
possession of Mr. Robert Rushbrooke, of

246 Old Country Inns

Rushbrooke, which seems to show that
" shovel-board " tables and billiard tables
existed at the same time. This, however,
does not do away with the contention of those
who assert that the modern game was elabor-
ated from the simpler pastime beloved of
Henry VIII and Charles II. The last long
"shovel-board" table in an inn was definitely
stated by Strutt, in his " Sports and Pastimes
of the People of England/ ' to be at " a low
public-house in Benjamin Street, Clerkenwell
Green/' It was three feet broad and
thirty-nine feet long.

As "shovel-board" tables were very expen-
sive pieces of furniture, it is doubtful whether
any but the most important inns ever had them.
The game was played frequently on tables
of much smaller dimensions, and the name
of " shovel-board " is usually used now-
adays to designate a particular form of ex-
tending table with hidden leaves. The long
Elizabethan and Jacobean tables — rather
mistakenly known as refectory tables — which
stood on stout turned legs connected by thick
rails, were ideal boards for the old game.
At Penshurst are, at the present time, two of
the finest specimens of long trestle tables
in the country. They date from the early

Inn Furniture 247

fifteenth century and measure twenty-seven
feet long by three feet wide.

Innkeepers, of course, had to keep abreast
of the times in the matter of furnishing, and
in the coaching era the old hostelries were
furnished in the latest and most approved
fashion. Hence it is that the Georgian inns,
where they have not been denuded of their
treasures by enterprising collectors, or turned
inside out by some unfortunately advised
landlord who preferred Victorian horsehair
and mahogany, still contain many interesting
pieces of the time of Chippendale, Heppel-
white, and Sheraton. A warning may not be
out of place to those who imagine that these
famous names applied to furniture really
indicate that the cabinet -making was done by
the craftsmen themselves. Without unim-
peachable documentary evidence, it is utterly
impossible to ascribe any fine piece of
mahogany to any one of the three great
cabinet-makers of the eighteenth century.
The names indicate nowadays certain periods
which are fairly definitely fixed, and certain
easily recognizable styles of work. In many
an old inn you will see in the coffee-room or
commercial room side tables, dining tables.,
card tables, chairs, settees, mirrors, long-case

17— (2244)

248 Old Country Inns

clocks, bureaux, and corner cupboards which
may typify any or all of the great periods of
the eighteenth century, and it is quite likely
that down in the hall or in the corridors and
kitchen you will discover specimens of Jaco-
bean chests, gate-leg tables, dressers, a
" bread-and-cheese " cupboard, perhaps, and
other relics of even an earlier age. The fact
was, of course, that pieces of furniture were
bought as they were required, and when an inn
had a history running well into two centuries
it would have been remarkable indeed if a
heterogeneous collection had not been got
together. It is only the modern craze for
collecting which has robbed the inn of so many
of its treasures. The experts will tell you that
the fact of a piece of furniture being old is no
guarantee whatever of its worth, excepting
whatever value may be attached to mere
length of years. A joiner in the country, say
in Shropshire or Yorkshire, might not make
a piece of furniture for mine host of the
Chequers or Blue Lion as well or in such good
taste as would the first-class cabinet-makers
of London. It is quite likely that he would
invest it with some local character, and if
this is well preserved in the piece it has its
worth on this account alone. But country

Inn Furniture 249

made Chippendale, Heppelwhite, or Sheraton
furniture, although charming enough, has rarely
any exceptional value. Wherever the contents
of a large country house was offered for sale,
the innkeeper as a man of some substance
would buy, and it is this fact which explains
in some cases the finds of really valuable
furniture which have been made at old inns.
The sort of advertisement — common enough
then as now — which attracted local com-
petition can be realised by the following,
from the Kentish Gazette of September 21st,
1790, which announced the sale in the Isle
of Thanet of :

" All the genuine Household Furniture, comprising
bedsteads with marine and other furniture, fine
goose feather beds, blankets, etc., mahogany ward-
robes, chest of drawers, ditto dressing tables,
mahogany press, bedsteads, with green check furni-
ture ; mahogany escritoire ; ditto writing table with
drawers ; ditto dining and Pembroke tables ;
library table with steps ; mahogany and other
chairs ; pier glasses and girandoles, in carved and
gilt frames ; a neat sofa ; an exceeding good eight-
day clock ; Wilton and other carpets ; register and
Bath stoves ; kitchen range ; smoke-jack and other
useful kitchen furniture ; two large brewing-coppers,
exceedingly good brewing utensils, and other effects."

This was the sale of the property of a man of
quality. It is probable from the description

250 Old Country Inns

that the furniture was comparatively new
at that time. The Pembroke table, the
mahogany escritoire, the pier glasses and
girandoles and other items were plainly
eighteenth century. The enumerated articles
would no doubt be the most attractive pieces
in the sale. Whether there was any old oak
or not cannot be ascertained from the adver-
tisement, but it is quite likely, for it would
never be quoted, being thought at that time
of no value. The catalogues of such sales
were always left with the chief innkeepers
of the neighbourhood, and to the innkeeper
came any likely buyers who would discuss the
mansion and its contents. Foreign com-
petition in the way of dealers from London,
was not to be feared in those days, and the
" neat sofa " and " exceeding good eight -day
clock " were quite as likely to find their way
to the coaching inn as to any of the prosperous
farmhouses in the neighbourhood.

A fairly common fixture in old inns was the
angle cupboard. It was usually not a separ-
ate piece of furniture, but was fitted into the
angle of the wall. It takes up little space,
and was convenient for the storage of crockery.

There is a famous angle cupboard at the
New Inn, New Romney.

Inn Furniture 251

The bedchambers of the old coaching inns
had as an inevitable feature the four -posters,
now, by the way, again coming into fashion.
These bedsteads were not always fine in design
by any means. The turning of the posts was
often quite clumsy enough, but they were
never so hideous as the tester beds of the
nineteenth century. The prettiest bed-posts
were those of the latter half of the Georgian
period, and Heppelwhite in particular is
credited with the design of some of the most
charming. As to drapery, which all good
chambermaids kept spotless and clean, the
following suggestion from Heppelwhite's own
book may be quoted.

" It may be executed of almost any stuff
which the loom produces. White dimity,
plain or corded, is peculiarly applicable for
the furniture, which, with a fringe with a
gymp head, produces an effect of elegance and
neatness truly agreeable." He goes on to
say : " The Manchester stuffs have been
wrought into bed furniture with good success.
Printed cottons and linens are also very
suitable, the elegance and variety of patterns
of which afford as much scope for taste,
elegance and simplicity as the most lively
fancy can wish. In general the lining to these

252 Old Country Inns

kinds of furniture is a plain white cotton. To
furniture of a dark pattern a green silk lining
may be used with good effect."

This description gives a very fair idea of
the way in which beds were draped about a
hundred to a hundred and fifty years ago.
Of course, the word " furniture " in the above
quotation is an old name for the hangings.
It is used in the sense that hangings furnished
the bed.

Tall-boys were found in the old inn bedroom,
the corner washstand with its blue and white
crockery, and one of those small loose mirrors
(far too small for the modern beauty) with
three little drawers underneath. It is quite
common in any country inn nowadays to
meet with these simple furnishings, though
the four-poster has given way in many in-
stances to cheap "black and brass" or "all-
black " bedsteads of the age of mechanical
ingenuity, and instead of a bed of goose-down
you shall lie on wool over that really very
comfortable rascal the wire mattress. The
immortal Jingle, who surely puts into four
words more philosophy on the subject of a
good inn than anyone else in fiction, summed
up everything when he remarked, " Good
house ; nice beds."

Inn Furniture 253

The day should not be far distant when the
new inn, not large fashionable hotels, will seek
to furnish in some better way than by the
purchase of heavy and ornate cast-iron tables
with marble tops for the saloon bar, with
utterly unsuitable saddle-bag suites for the
parlour, with flashing mirrors everywhere, and
ornamental crockery, palm stands of dubious
origin, and gilt leather papers as decorative
enrichments.

However much influence the Arts and Crafts
movement has had in the furnishing of the
domestic dwelling, it has left practically
untouched the house which belongs of right to
the public. There are craftsmen, however,
many of them, whose furniture seems as if it
were designed specially for the country inn,
yet it is doubtful whether one was ever
commissioned to supply the equipment which
would give such character and charm to the
modern licensed house. Some of the pieces
of furniture, such as plain straightforward
oaken drawers, benches, chairs, sturdy tables,
cupboards and the like which have for many
years been exhibited by members of the
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, would be
infinitely more suitable in the inn than any-
where else. It is not apparently lack of

254 Old Country Inns

money which makes those who furnish inns
anew look to the modern and often hideous
productions of commerce for their furniture.
It would seem to be rather lack of knowledge
or taste. No publican exists but wants
to make his house attractive ; but, except
occasional advice about the preservation of
the character of old inns by the retention of
what old furniture there may be and the pur-
chase of other pieces in a style suitable to the
building, there would appear to be no influence
whatever to prevent refurnishing in a manner
which suggests too often an attempt to re-
produce a railway hotel in miniature. At
the moment the most accessible good furniture
for the new inns is to be found in the modern
reproductions of well-known styles which are
to be purchased through the ordinary com-
mercial channels and at commercial prices.
It is the commonest experience to go into a
country inn of undeniable architectural
charm, even if the attraction be merely that
it seems a simple homely looking building and
nothing else, and to find inside furnishing as
bad or worse than that of the cheap lodging-
house. Now the inn should be a cut above
that. It should not be too much to expect
a little simplicity in furnishing. It is the

I

1

3

*•

4

Inn Furniture 255

attempt to elaborate which usually results
in such artistic disaster. We have in memory
many a little public-house, whose parlour is so
small as to prohibit the slightest effort at
decorative detail, and others — obscure ale-
houses some of them — where obviously there
is not the wherewithal to provide up-to-date
splendours, and in these instances the plain,
honest benches, the trestle tables, the Wind-
sor chairs and homely dresser constitute an
interior which could scarcely be improved.
There being no chance to elaborate, well has
fortunately been left alone.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE INNKEEPER

" A seemly man our Hoste was withal.
For to have been a marshall in a hall.
A large man he was with eyen stepe,
A fairer burgess is there none in Chepe ;
Bold of his speech and wise, and well-y-taught
And of manhood him lackede right naught.
Like thereto he was right a merry man."

A MODEL to all innkeepers was Our Hoste
of the Tabard ; a born leader of men, quick
to understand each man's individualities,
and full of kindly sympathy for all. Ready
of wit, he was ever careful to remove the
sting before it could rankle. A man of
education, he could adapt himself to his
company and be skilful in devices for their
comfort and recreation. Not least of his
many qualifications as a landlord was his
presence of mind in averting disputes by a
judicious change of the subject.

We no longer send innkeepers to Parlia-
ment, nor do members of Parliament, as a rule,
undertake the personal superintendence of

256

The Innkeeper 257

hotels, as they often did in the fourteenth
century. But the type of innkeeper por-
trayed as Harry Bailey of the Tabard, in
Southwark, is by no means extinct. You
may find him if you search well under many an
old gable or Queen Anne cornice — sometimes
even in a smart new red-brick hotel. Nor is
he lacking on the great ancient trade routes
that run right through Europe — not even
in those establishments recommended by
Baedeker or Bradshaw — though the new races
of purse-proud tourists and Cook's excur-
sionists are fast expelling him in favour of the
servile and mercenary business manager. In
a humbler way, the village and wayside inns
contain good men and true who follow in the
footsteps of Harry Bailey. Such inns, often
kept by retired tradesmen, blacksmiths or
farmers, are a boon and a blessing to the
neighbourhood. They are not only a centre
of recreation for the village labourer ; they
tend also to educate and uplift him, ridiculous
as the assertion may seem to those who have
never put on an old coat and tramped through
the by-ways into Arcady.

Diverse and sundry are the concerns in
which the village innkeeper is called upon to
give advice. He is the arbitrator in disputes,

258 Old Country Inns

he solves weighty problems of rural etiquette.
He knows the inner secrets of every home
and can weigh the respective merits of his
clientele to a nicety. To him it is that each
one comes for help in trouble, social or finan-
cial, and his charity is given irrespective of
politics or creed, given considerately as be-
comes a man of affairs, and without stint.
The parish clergy know him as a valuable
ally, and it is not unusual to find him acting
as churchwarden. Nay, only the other day
we saw a procession headed by the worthy
village publican carrying the cross, and a
manful and decorous crossbearer he proved
himself.

It is surprising what good fellows innkeepers
generally are, when one considers all the
difficulties surrounding their occupation.
They are the legitimate prey of every tax and
rate collector. We know of one middle-class
beerhouse where the rent charged by the
brewers is only £50 a year, but which is rated
at more than double that amount. The inn-
keeper, for the purpose of taxation, is merged
in the licensed victualler. He is told that
his business of selling fermented liquors is a
valuable monopoly, and a very heavy licensed
duty is exacted for the privilege. Yet he is

The Innkeeper 259

expected to view with equanimity the dozens
of bottles of beer, wine and spirits passing
his door in the trucks of the grocer, who by
virtue of a nominal licence can easily undersell
him. Long after the hour when he is bound
by law to close, he hears the shouts of the
bibulous in the neighbouring political club ;
on Sunday mornings he sees a procession of
jugs and bottles issuing from this same un-
taxed establishment. Blackmailed by the
police, and spied upon by the hirelings of all
kinds of busybody societies, he goes to the
Brewster Sessions in each year in fear and
trembling. The licensing justices must by
law have no interest whatever either in a
brewery or a licensed house of any description,
but they may be, and frequently are, teeto-
tallers. Every other subject of his Majesty
is entitled to plead his cause before his peers.
The licensed victualler, alone of all English-
men since the days of Magna Charta, has to
submit to be tried by enemies who have
sworn his ruin.

How we all love to see, on the stage, at least,
if not in real life, jovial, hearty old souls like
Mine Host who entertained Falstaff at the
Garter, or old Will Boniface (first landlord to
be so dubbed) of the Beaux Stratagem. It

260 Old Country Inns

is disappointing that Farquhar was such a
wronghead dramatist as to make all his
interesting characters vicious. We cannot
believe this fat and pompous host with a
wholesome faith in the virtues of his brew
could really have been a scoundrel or capable
of conspiring with footpads. No ! Julius
Caesar was a better judge of fat human nature
than Farquhar ! Depend upon it, Boniface
slept after his potations the sleep of an honest
man. Just listen to him :

Sir, you shall taste my Anno Domini, I have lived
in Lichfield, man and boy, above eight-and-fifty years,
and I believe have not consumed eight-and-fifty ounces
of meat.

Aimwell. At a meal, you mean, if one may guess
your sense by your bulk.

Boniface. Not in my life, Sir ; I have fed purely
upon ale ; I have ate my ale, drank my ale, and I
always sleep upon ale.

Enter tapster with a Tankard.

Now, sir, you shall see ; your worship's health ;
Ha ! delicious, delicious — fancy it Burgundy, only
fancy it, and 'tis worth ten shillings a quart.

Aimwell (drinks). 'Tis confounded strong.

Boniface. Strong ! It must be so ; or how would
we be strong that drink it ?

Hawthorne tried hard to find Mr. Boniface's
inn at Lichfield, but in vain. He had to
content himself with the Black Swan, once

The Innkeeper 261

owned by Dr. Johnson. Farquhar was care-
ful not to indicate the particular inn referred
to, if it ever existed there. Not that the
dramatists in bygone days lived in fear
of a libel action. Witness a farce by J. M.
Morton, in which Mrs. Fidget, the landlady
of the Dolphin at Portsmouth, is most cruelly
pilloried for her dishonesty and meanness. In
"Naval Engagements" Charles Dance portrays
Mr. Short of the Fountain in the same town as
a . scurvy impudent rascal, taking advantage
of customers who had spent the night not
wisely nor too well, to charge them for an
unordered and unserved breakfast. Short's
sanctimonious morality and his devices to
detain customers in a hurry, so that they are
compelled to stay in the inn for dinner, are a
valuable humorous element of this play.

Fielding's innkeepers are all exquisitely
drawn, -with the lifelike touches of a fine
student of human nature in its infinite variety.
We love best of all the host of that inn where
Parson Adams met the braggart, untruthful
squire who offered him a fine living and end-
less other benefits without the slightest
intention of fulfilling his promises. Mine
Host stands by chuckling inwardly at the good
jest when the squire undertakes to defray

262 Old Country Inns

the bill for the lodging and entertainment of
the party. Nor does he lose his good-humour
when he finds next morning the joke turned
against himself and that the worthy curate
has not a farthing in his purse.

' Trust you, master ? that I will with all
my heart. I honour the clergy too much to
deny trusting one of them for such a trifle ;
besides, I like your fear of never paying me.
I have lost many a debt in my lifetime ;
but was promised to be paid them all in a very
short time. I will score this reckoning for the
novelty of it ; it is the first, I do assure you,
of its kind. But what say you, master,
shall we have t'other pot before we part ?
It will waste but a little chalk more ; and, if
you never pay me a shilling, the loss will not

ruin me."

By way of contrast we are given the terma-
gant Mrs. Tow-wouse, whose ill-temper and
selfish grasping ways were always counteract-
ing her easy-going spouse's mild attempts in
the direction of generosity :

" Mrs. Tow-wouse had given no utterance
to the sweetness of her temper. Nature had
taken such pains in her countenance, that
Hogarth himself never gave more expression
to a picture. Her person was short, thin, and

The Innkeeper 263

crooked ; her forehead projected in the middle
and thence descended in a declivity to the
top of her nose, which was sharp and red,
and would have hung over her lips, had not
Nature turned up the end of it ; her lips were
two bits of skin, which, whenever she spoke,
she drew together in a purse ; her chin was
peaked ; and at the upper end of that skin
which composed her cheeks, stood two bones,
that almost hid a pair of small red eyes.
Add to this a voice most wonderfully adapted
to the sentiments it was to convey, being both
loud and hoarse."

Surely such a picture is worthy of being
beside Skelton's description of the frowsy
ale wife of Leatherhead.

Dean Swift encountered a lady of the same
contrary nature at the Three Crosses, on the
road between Dunchurch and Daventry. He
left his opinion of his hostess on one of the
windows :

" To the Landlord.

There hang three crosses at thy door,
Hang up thy wife and she'll make four."

And here we may be permitted to introduce
an adventure of our own. A party of three,
we were engaged on a walk across the Dunes,
near Nieuport, and had lost our way. Flemish

i&— (3344)

264 Old Country Inns

was the language of the district, and this in
its spoken form was a sealed book to all three.
By and by we came to a little roadside
estaminet which we entered, and in correct
exercise -book French inquired the nearest
way to Furnes. The proprietor replied by
placing before us three large glasses of the
local beverage. It was a hot, dusty day,
we were thirsty and the beer light and harm-
less. So we drank it and then again inquired
the way to Furnes. For answer our glasses
were forthwith refilled. When we shook our
heads in dissent, the obliging caterer brought
out in turn every different kind of bottle
and brand of cigar and cigarette the estab-
lishment could muster. It was no good. We
did not wish to drink or smoke.

He was perplexed and sat down for a few
moments to scratch his head and ponder over
the puzzling problem. At last he decided
to do what many wiser men before have done
when in a quandary : he called his wife.
Maybe female intuition might pierce into these
mysteries where dull reason vainly groped in
darkness.

She came, pink and rosy as some glorious
dawn, tripping as lightly as a forty-eight inch
waist and a weight somewhere near fourteen

The Innkeeper 265

stone would permit. After darting a scornful
glance at her lord and master she turned to us
with a sweet smile. We asked in Parisian
tongue the nearest way to Furnes. In a
trice she placed before us three pint glasses
of Flemish white beer. We manifested our
disapproval very strongly ; we did not want
any beer, and her husband watched and
smoked his pipe with a cynical grin as she
brought us, in vain, the bottles and various
other articles from the shelves.

Then a brilliant idea occurred to one of the
trio. After all, the Flemish language is only a
dialect of German ! So in truly classic
German he inquired of the puzzled dame —
Would she kindly tell us the nearest way to
Furnes ?

A bright smile of intelligence illumined her
features. She understood now exactly what
we wanted, and popping into the kitchen
behind, she soon returned with three steaming
plates full of most delicious hotch-potch soup.
There were haricots, lentils, cabbage stumps,
garlic, chicken bones, sausages and other
articles unidentified in that soup. But it
was appetising ; we remembered that we were
hungry from a long walk and sat down and
absorbed it with a good-will.

266 Old Country Inns

That woman, we know for certain, became
our devoted friend from the moment. She
will never forget us. She demurred very
strongly to our paying anything for the
refreshment, and tried hard to force three
more pints of that terribly mild beer on us
before we left. Not only had we appreciated
her cooking at its fullest value — we had also
proved her abilities as a cosmopolitan woman
of business — and, depend upon it, the fact
has been rubbed into her partner in life many
times since then !

But of worthy, buxom good-tempered land-
ladies there is always a plentiful supply,
faithful and true in the defence of their
friends, like the good widow McCandlish in
"Guy Mannering," or beneficent fairies, ready
to adjust the difficulties of eloping young
couples and their several guardians with the
delicacy and tact of a Mrs. Bartick. l The
fair sex have usually all the business qualities
for the conduct of a good inn, and when with
these are conjoined kindness of disposition the
traveller is blest indeed.

Once upon a time, so tradition hath it —
there was a barmaid in a Westminster tavern

1 " Three Deep ; or All on the Wing." A once favourite
farcical play by Joseph Lunn.

The Innkeeper 267

who married her master. After his death, she
continued to carry on the business, and had
occasion to seek the advice of a lawyer
named Hyde. Mr. Hyde wooed and married
her. Then Hyde became Lord Chancellor
and was ennobled as Lord Clarendon. Their
daughter married the Duke of York, and was
the mother of Mary and Anne Stewart. So
the landlady of an inn became the grand-
mother of two queens. Most history books
are content to describe Lord Clarendon's
second wife as the daughter of Sir Thomas
Aylesbury ; but the supporters of the
traditional view maintain that this was an
invention of the Court Party.

We have not yet encountered an innkeeper
exactly of the same type as old John Willet,
of the Maypole at Chigwell, that " burly
large -headed man with a fat face, which
betokened profound obstinacy and slowness of
apprehension, combined with a very strong
reliance upon his own merits/' We meet
occasionally in other walks of life these small-
minded individuals whom chance has endowed
with pride pf place and the opportunity to
tyrannize over all around them. Like the
sovereign owner of the ancient hostelry with
its " huge zigzag chimneys and more gable

268 Old Country Inns

ends than a lazy man would care to count on a
sunny day/' not to speak of its diamond-pane
lattices and its ceilings blackened by the hand
of time and heavy with massive beams, they
imagine that their reign will endure to the
end. Is there in all literature a more pathetic
piece of writing than that in which Charles
Dickens depicts the humiliation of John
Willet, when the Gordon rioters invade the
Maypole, and the fallen tyrant finds himself
" sitting down in an armchair and watching
the destruction of his property, as if it were
some queer play or entertainment of an
astonishing and stupefying nature, but having
no reference to himself — that he could make
out— at all?"

Innkeepers have been reckoned among the
poets. John Taylor, the " Water Poet/' so
called because he commenced life as a water-
man, and because so many of his voluminous
works deal with aquatic matters, kept a tavern
in Phoenix Alley, Longacre. Being a faithful
royalist he set up the sign of the Mourning
Crown over his house to express his sorrow
at the tragic death of Charles I, but was com-
pelled by the Parliament to take it down. He
replaced it with his own portrait and the
following lines :

The Innkeeper 269

" There is many a head hangs for a sign ;
Then, gentle reader, why not mine ? "

The episode is commemorated in a rhyming
pamphlet issued by him at the same time :

" My signe was once a Crowne, but now it is
Changed by a sudden metamorphosis.
The Crowne was taken downe, and in the stead
Is placed John Taylor's or the Poet's Head."

Of Taylor's works, the mere enumeration of
which occupies eight closely printed pages in
"Lownde's Bibliographer's Manual/' the best
known are his " Prayse of Cleane Linen/'
and " The Pennyless Pilgrimage," descriptive
of a journey on foot from London to Edin-
burgh, " not carrying any money to and fro,
neither begging, borrowing or asking meat,
drink or lodging." In 1620, he made a similar
journey from London to Prague, and published
an account of it.

Scarcely less eminent in his way was Ned
Ward, the " Publican Poet," immortalised in
the " Dunciad." His works are scurrilous
and coarse, yet not to be despised by students
of London topography in the reign of Queen
Anne. His writings in the London Spy
describe the London taverns and inns of
his day, and he produced several imitations
of Butler's "Hudibras," including a versified

270 Old Country Inns

translation of "Don Quixote/' and "Hudibras
Redivivus." The latter work obtained for its
author the privilege of standing twice in the
pillory and of paying a fine of forty marks.
His inn stood in Woodbridge Street, Clerken-
well, and his poetical invitation to customers
includes a reference to the Red Bull Theatre,
close by, made famous by Shakespeare and
Edward Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich
College :

" There on that ancient, venerable ground,
Where Shakespeare in heroic buskins trod,
Within a good old fabrick may be found
Celestial liquors, fit to charm a god."

Very different was the side in politics
favoured by Sam House, " the patriotic
publican/' Apprenticed as a brewhouse
cooper, his active industrious habits enabled
him, when only twenty-five years of age, to
lease an inn at the corner of Peter Street,
Wardour Street, Soho, called the Gravel Pits,
which name he changed to the Intrepid Foxy
or The Cap of Liberty. In 1763 he very warmly
espoused the cause of John Wilkes, and sold
his beer at threepence a pot in honour of the
champion of freedom. Of unflinching politi-
cal integrity, Sam House was in most respects
a well-meaning, good-hearted man, with but

The Innkeeper 271

one reprehensible vice — a habit of swearing
most horribly, no matter what the company.
Many are the unprintable anecdotes related
with regard to this failing, when the most
exalted personages were conversing with him.
Another eccentric feature of his character was
illustrated when he had laid a wager with a
young man to race him in Oxford Road.
Just when his victory seemed assured, a
mischievous wag in the crowd suddenly

shouted, " D n Fox and all his friends, say

I ! ): Forthwith Sam forgot all about his
race, and regardless of protests from his
backers, turned round and administered a
sound drubbing to the blasphemer. This
gave great amusement to the spectators,
but meanwhile his rival had passed the
winning-post. Sam cheerfully paid the
penalty, consoling himself that he had lost
the race in a good cause, while avenging an
insult to his political idol.

CHAPTER XIX

PUBLIC-HOUSE REFORM

" NOTHING suits worse with vice than want
of sense/' remarked Sir Harry Wilding in the
" Constant Couple/1 For vice we might read
benevolence and find the maxim equally
appropriate. Good judgment is especially
needful in that kind of philanthropy so much
in vogue at the present time, wherein one class
of the community interests itself in improving
the condition of another class with which it
is imperfectly acquainted.

Take, for instance, the housing of the work-
ing classes. A committee of maiden ladies
meet together and engage the services of some
clever young architect. The local land-
owner finds the funds, and very soon a row
of cottages has been built of dainty pictur-
esque appearance, and everything inside them
equally lovely. The sanitation is of the latest,
the rooms are light and airy. All sorts of
clever devices are introduced to economize
space, nice cupboards, economical cooking
stoves with every appliance to delight the

272

Public-House Reform 273

housewife, and even a bath artfully hidden
beneath a trap-door just in front of the
kitchen fire. There is even high art decora-
tion approved by the Kyrle Society. In
short, these cottages would be a joy and a
treasure if only the ungrateful labourer would
consent to leave his insanitary hovel and come
and take up his abode therein. He emphati-
cally declines to do so because they contain
no " best room/'

The committee of maiden ladies are very
indignant at the idea of the working man
insisting on his best room, an apartment
which remains hermetically closed from week-
end to week-end, reserved only as a shrine
for the family Bible and for the reception of a
few highly -favoured visitors. He ought, they
contend, to be satisfied with the big airy
living-room, specially designed for his family,
and has no business to complain that his little
heirlooms will be at the mercy of inquisitive
and mischievous children. But it will be a
bad day for England when the " best room "
disappears from the artisan's home. It is
by long tradition his castle, his secret keep,
the innermost temple of his religion. Every
patriotic instinct of the poor man has its
centre within that little stuffy apartment.

274 Old Country Inns

Home to the working man means the best
room. The safety of the best room justifies
all the national expenditure on a standing
army and a huge navy. In the defence of that
best room he is prepared to send his sons to lay
their bones in some nameless soldier's grave
in the most distant corner of the empire.
Take away the best room and the wage-earner
has no home worth either working for or
fighting for. He becomes an atheist, an
anarchist, and a general outcast.

A similar lack of appreciation of human
nature is shown by certain philanthropists in
dealing with the use by working men of the
public -house as a place of resort. How
much better, they urge, if the workman
would spend his time in more intellectual
surroundings — in reading rooms, popular
lectures or entertainments, Christian en-
deavour societies, etc., etc. And so they
exert all their influence over licensing justices,
the police and other authorities, inciting
them to make the public -house as uncomfort-
able as possible ; with the result that a series
of very undesirable institutions having all
the worst qualities of the gin palace, without
its publicity or proper means of supervision,
are coming into existence. Penny readings,

Public-House Reform 275

lectures, and other religious or educational
centres are well enough in their way ; but the
man of few home resources yearns for the
gossip of the alehouse. Only there can he
find what the soul of every human being longs
for, the company of his own kind, and recrea-
tion and amusement which he himself can
assist in supplying.

Still, if it is to continue, the public-house
must be reformed and improved in some way
to satisfy the national conscience. And a
book of this kind seems to be incomplete
unless it contains some suggestions as to the
direction in which reform ought to proceed.

In the first place, we would urge the inex-
pediency of any further legislation. Any-
body, who as a parish worker or as an employer
of labour has interested himself in a model
public -house, will agree with us in this. No
other institution in the country is so hopelessly
law-ridden and police -ridden. We might
make an exception in the case of the licence
itself. All taxation of alcoholic liquors should
be direct and should be levied at the fountain
head — whether distiller, brewer or importer.
The licence for retailing such liquors
should be a moderate and fixed amount like
all other licences. Why the publican should

276 Old Country Inns

be penalised at so high a rate, when the grocer,
whose annual sales often exceed those of all
the public-houses in the district combined,
is let off with a nominal sum, passes all
comprehension .

To impose a high licence on the hotel or
tavern-keeper is, in the opinion of those who
have studied the subject carefully, a mistake
both economically and morally. First, be-
cause a large and increasing portion of his
sales consists in wares which the outside
dealer supplies without the necessity of either
tax or licence. Secondly, there is a serious
temptation offered to the publican to recoup
the high expenditure on his licence by
inducing his customers to drink. And it is
most important that men of the highest
character and responsibility should be
encouraged to take office as innkeepers and
publicans. This can hardly be the case
while the high licence adds so seriously to the
amount of unremunerative capital required
for embarking in the business. No other
trade is handicapped by such an iniquitous
impost.

We must not, of course, shirk that ugly
word," monopoly value/' introduced by the
Licensing Act of 1902. But it is a monopoly

Public-House Reform 277

of dwindling value riddled by half a dozen
competing agencies and minimised by all sorts
of vexatious restrictions. Sunday trading
is not a desirable thing, but a visit to any
favourite suburban resort on Sunday morning
reveals a state of affairs only to be paralleled
in Gilbertian comic opera. Tobacconists,
sweet-stuff shops, tea gardens and enterprising
Italian caterers are all doing a roaring trade
without let or hindrance. Meanwhile the
" Licensed Victualler/1 who pays so high a
price for his " monopoly " as a purveyor of
refreshments, is compelled on pain of extinc-
tion to keep his doors bolted and barred
against all but the few hardy souls who
have accomplished the Sabbath Day's
journey.

There is an underworld in the drink trade.
Provincial allotment holders never seem to
lack a good supply of the national beverage
on Sunday mornings ; it does not flow from
the local alehouse. Quarterns of gin and
whisky are obtainable in London from some
unknown sources at all hours of the night.
One of the authors, associated for many years
with a famous church in the poorer districts
of central London, made some astonishing
discoveries with regard to this illicit drink

278 Old Country Inns

traffic. Most of it is the direct out-
come of the oppressive one-sided licensing
laws.

On the liquor question itself, we would
suggest that the tax on beer should be gradu-
ated, and a comparatively light duty be im-
posed on beer guaranted to be brewed entirely
from malt and hops, and containing only the
small proportion of alcohol necessary to carry
the phosphates — say not more than four per
cent. We believe that the revenue would
not ultimately lose much by this concession,
while the result of its general adoption as a
beverage would be highly beneficial. No
better preventative could be imagined against
nervous depression, the great curse of modern
life, and the real cause of the drink and drug-
taking habits — than a revival of the good
old English mild ale such as our fore-
fathers brewed in the pre-reformation
Church Houses.

We have already referred to the work of the
Public Refreshment House Association, and
much good is bound to result from the efforts
of this body in improving the status of the
public-house. Its methods and the rules laid
down for the management of the houses under
its control are worthy of all praise. The

Public-House Reform 279

foresight and self-denial of its directorate are
especially commendable, in that the society
seeks to co-operate in the formation of separate
county trusts, rather than to aggrandize itself
by acquiring an unlimited number of licences.
The danger of a gigantic trust, as of a national
monopoly, would be that enormous power
might, in the second generation, fall into the
hands of an ambitious and tyrannical central
staff. One fear only we have with regard
to the P.R.H.A. Its establishments are so
attractive and altogether so desirable, that like
all philanthropic efforts they will end by
benefiting a higher class than was at first
intended. The lady cyclist and the week-
ender will avail themselves of their advantages
rather than the rural labourer. And we hope
that the wise authorities at headquarters will
guard against this difficulty by encouraging
games, and providing magazines for the users
of the tap-room.

A worthy country cleric of our acquaintance
takes exception to the preferential commission
which the Association allows to its local
managers in order to push the sale of temper-
ance drinks. He urges that no temperance
drink has hitherto been invented which is
either thirst quenching or wholesome. The tea

19— (2244)

280 Old Country Inns

and coffee habit would end by making the
villager as neurotic as his cockney cousin.
Aerated waters, flavoured with narcotic drugs
and saturated with gaseous mineral carbonic
dioxide, put a severe strain on the action of
the heart ; fruit syrups are doctored with
nerve -destroying formaline to prevent natural
fermentation. Even the popular ginger beer
and ginger ale are not unimpeachable. Ginger
is a drug injurious to the coating of the
stomach ; and in some modern brands the
more poisonous capsicum is employed as a
cheaper substitute.

But on general grounds, we think this
encouragement of temperance drinks is alto-
gether a judicious move. The public-house
exists for the benefit and use of all classes and
sections of the community ; the teetotaller
has as much right there as anybody else, and
it is desirable that he should exercise that
right as frequently as possible. The popular
idea that the tavern is only a place for the
consumption of certain alcoholic drinks must
be dispelled ; such liquors have to be on sale
there merely because a large majority of
Englishmen habitually desire them as bever-
ages, and it is not the duty of those in charge
to decide whether they shall, or shall not,

CQ

Public-House Reform 281

continue to do so. Wine, beer and spirits are
an essential part, but still only one department
of the tavern-keeper's business.

Village trusts have been introduced with
success in some rural districts. A body of
trustees is elected by the whole parish for a
term of years, on much the same lines as the
Parish Council. Management on a democratic
basis has its good points, if only the natives
can be roused to take a keen interest in the
subject. But all these revolutionary dis-
placements of " the trade " are unnecessary.
The good conduct of the public -house depends
not so much on those who manage it as on
those who habitually use it, and on the growth
of a healthy national appreciation of its value.
If only men of good-will made it a rule to visit
from time to time the various licensed houses
of the neighbourhood, their very presence
would be a wonderful help to the cause of
morality. A good understanding with the
landlord should be established, and then
suggestions for the improvement of the house
quietly and considerately discussed with him.
We know of parish priests who, facing
sneers about " Beer and Bible/' have pursued
this course, and their efforts have brought
blessing and reward. But it must be

282 Old Country Inns

understood that all genuine progress is slow.
The Public -house is not so much the moulder
as the index of public morals ; and any
violent attempts at reforming it are as absurd
as to manipulate a barometer with a view to
improving the weather.

In a recent speech the Bishop of Birming-
ham cited as his ideal of the public-house, an
establishment in Barcelona which he had
visited several times, and which struck him as
being specially delightful. He described it as
an immense room in which there must have
been about a thousand people. They were
of all classes ; a good many of them were
artisans who wore their blouses, and they were
there with their wives and children constantly.
They were drinking all sorts of things — beer,
wine, tea, coffee, or milk, and some of them
were drinking a peculiar compound of a kind
of pink colour, the nature of which he was not
able to ascertain through an imperfect know-
ledge of the language. There was rather a
good band, but one could not hear it much
because all were talking and laughing and
making themselves extremely agreeable to
one another. He asked himself every time
he went there — Was not that type of place of
public resort, public refreshment, and public

Public-House Reform 283

amusement entirely desirable ? He had been
there on Sundays and week-days, and he
never felt that he had seen or heard anything
that was not entirely desirable. Every time
he went there — and he could find the same
thing in other countries and cities — he said
to himself : What was there in the nature of
things why we could not have exactly this
kind of place of public amusement and recrea-
tion— this kind of public-house with regard
to which they would not feel the slightest
desire for any legislation to restrict the
opportunity of women or children or of
anybody else going into it ?

There are several public-houses in England
where the presence of an enlightened thinker
like Dr. Gore would be welcomed. One in
particular occurs to us as we write — the Ship
at Ospringe, near Faversham. The climate
of the Swale marshes will not admit of a hall
to contain over a thousand people, but here
there is a room which on Saturday nights
might contain any number up to a hundred
and fifty. There is no band — the police
would speedily interfere at the first trumpet
blare ; nor any children — thanks to a recent
Act of Parliament. But his lordship would
find a happy good-humoured company, young

284 Old Country Inns

men and old, wives and sweethearts, some
drinking beer, some lemonade, young girls
eating their supper of bread and cheese or fish,
all engaged in merry converse, or listening
with uncritical good-nature to songs and
recitations provided by such among their
number as are inclined to oblige. If a pianist
happens to turn up, so much the better ;
otherwise the vocalist does his best without
accompaniment. All is homely and hearty.
We have visited the Ship many times and
never perceived any signs of objectionable
conduct. If it lacks any of the advantages
of its Barcelona rival, we must blame the law
and the licensing authorities — certainly not
the institution.

In Spain, as in Germany, the inn or the
tavern is regarded as an essential element of
civic life, not as a place to be discouraged and
despised. A century or two ago all good and
respectable Britons avoided the theatre, and
the drama in England became a byword for
immorality and licentiousness. A better
spirit arose ; churchmen and ladies of refine-
ment interested themselves in the theatre ;
the ban was removed, and now we can take
our sisters, cousins and aunts to see an English
play without fear of incurring their reproaches.

Angel Inn, Woolhampton

286 Old Country Inns

Perchance, also, a new era may await the
public -house, and its value as an educative
and steadying influence on the democracy
will be understood.

We live in the midst of a period when great
revolutionary changes are impending. Never
before has the struggle for existence among the
masses been so keenly felt, or the cruel differ-
ences of opportunity of rich and poor so
widely ventilated. Class privilege and hered-
itary endowment seem alike destined for the
melting-pot. What will emerge none can tell.
We have shown how in previous ages, when-
ever there were great political or social changes,
the tavern played its part. Within the doors
of the public-house all men are brethren.
There alone class can meet class and discuss
their difficulties freely and even dispassion-
ately. Society has too long left the lower
orders to estimate the advantage of culture
from its Tony Lumpkins. It is a great
opportunity. The venerable house of call,
bequeathed to us by the ages, beckons all
to come within its kindly shelter, out of the
storms of class hatred and political prejudice.
Churlish and short-sighted indeed will those
be who reject the invitation.

For, after all, the old antiquary whom we

Public-House Reform

287

met with in the chapter on the Church Inns
was right. The keynote of the public -house
and its true purpose in life is Christian
Charity. Charity which suffereth long and
is kind, bearing all things, envying not, nor
believing any evil ; and without which we
are nothing. The greatest thing in Earth or
Heaven.

INDEX

A eland Arms, Exmoor, 188
Addington, Angel, 23
Albion, South Norwood, 131
Alfriston, Star, 24, 201
Anchor, Hartfield, 78, 142

Liphook, 133

Angel, Addington, 23

Basingstoke, 23

- Bury St. Edmunds, 23

Grantham, 23

Guildford, 23

Islington, 24

Theale, 175

Woolhampton, 285

Antelope, Godalming, 116
Ashbourne, Green Man and

Black's Head, 171
Ash Vale, Swan, 143
Aylesbury, George, 159

King's Head, 59, 195

Bagworth, Maynard Arms, 236
Barking, Bull, 18, 22
Barley, Fox and Hounds, 165
Barley Mow, Hartford, 79
Basingstoke, Angel, 23
Battersea, Falcon, 122
Bear, Chelsham, 174

Maidenhead, 126

Southwark, 20

Wantage, 174

Bear and Ragged Staff, Cumnor,

124

Bee Hive, Grantham, 168
Bell, Edenbridge, 171

Edmonton, 154

Epping, 234

Finedon, 77

Westminster, 77

Warwick Lane, 77

Bermondsey, Simon the Tanner,

61

Bettws-y-Coed, Royal Oak, 157
Birdbrook, Plough, 243
Bird in Hand, Bromley, 139
Bishop Blaise, New Inn Yard,

61

Black Bear, Devizes, 151
Black Lion, Walsingham, 115,

151

Black Swan, Lichfield, 260
Bletchingley, White Hart, 146
Blue Boar, Leicester, 117
Blue Cap, Sandiway, 140
Book in Hand, Mabelthorpe,

166

Bournville Public House, 236
Bracknell, Hind's Head, 187
Brentford, Three Pigeons, 153
Brentwood, White Hart, 41, 42,

199

Bricklayers' Arms, Caxton, 61
Bridge Inn, Port Sunlight,

236

Brighton, Old Steyne, 216
Broadway, Lygon Arms, 244
Bull, Barking, 18, 22

Coventry, 133

Dartford, 18, 87

Long Melford, 21, 87,

197

Mailing, 18

Newington, 19

Reading, 19

Rochester, 22, 204

St. Albans. 21

Sudbury, 198

Theale, 18

Woodbridge, 150

Bull and Bush, Hampstead,

148
Bull and Mouth, St. Martins le

Grand, 82, 127
Bury St. Edmunds, Angel, 23

289

290

Index

CfBsar's Head, Great Palace

Yard, 112
Canterbury, Chequers, 106

Falstaff, 152

Fountain, 1

Castle, Hurst, 75

Marlborough, 91

Castleton, George and Dragon,

234
Caxton, Bricklayers' Arms, 61

George, 86

Chelsham, Bear, 174
Chequers, Canterbury, 106

Doddington, 107

Loose, 107

St. Albans, 107

Slapestones, 110

Chester, King Edgar, 112
Chiddingfold, Crown, 208
Chigwell, King's Head, 158
Clare,': Swan, 175
Clothiers' Arms, Stroud, 235
Coach and Horses, Westmin-
ster, 86

Coal Hole, Strand, 236
Cock, Fleet Street, 24
Cock and Bell, Romford, 79
Cock and Tabard, Westmin-
ster, 23

Colnbrook, Ostrich, 37, 188
Combe St. Nicholas, Green

Dragon, 240

Copt Hall, London, E.C., 236
Coventry, Bull, 133
Crown, Chiddingfold, 208

Dartford, 126

Hempstead, 151

Ospringe, 37

Rochester, 1

Shipton - under - Wych -

wood, 199

Crown and Treaty, Uxbridge,

133
Cumnor, Bear and Ragged Staff,

124

Dartford, Bull, 18, 87

Crown, 126

Derby, Dolphin, 100

Derby, Nottingham Castle, 99
Devizes, Black Bear, 151
Doddington, Chequers, 107
Dog and Doublet, Sandon, 236
Dolphin, Derby, 100

Portsmouth, 261

Dorking, White Horse, 26

Gun, 123

Dorset Arms, Withyham, 107
Duck in the Pond, Harrow

Weald, 236
Duke of Wellington, High

Beech, 178

Edenbridge, Bell, 171
Edmonton, Bell, 154
Elephant and Castle, London,

S.E., 64, 163
Elm Tree, Oxford, 236
Elmers' End, William IV, 235
Elmesthorpe, Wentworth Arms,

236
Enfield, King James and the

Tinker, 126
Epping, Bell, 234

Falcon, Battersea, 122
Falstaff, Canterbury, 152

Gad's Hill, 152

Newington, 153

Farnham, Jolly Farmer, 151
Faversham, Fleur de Lis, 123
Feathers, Ludlow, 204, 244
Peering, Sun, 199
Felstead, Swan, 51, 75
Fighting Cocks, St. Albans, 2
Finedon, Bell, 77

First and Last, Sennen, 162
Fittleworth, Old Swan, 158
Five Alls, Marlborough, 176
Fleur de Lis, Faversham, 123
Flyford Flavel, Union, 239
Fountain, Canterbury, 1

Portsmouth, 261

Four Swans, Waltham Cross.

171

Fox and Hounds, Barley, 165
Fox and Pelican, Haslemere,

231

Index

291

George, Aylesbury, 159

Caxton, 86

Glastonbury, 39, 199

Hayes, 158, 236

Huntingdon, 78

Rochester, 37

St. Albans, 39

Southwark, 87

Winchester, 54

Wymondham, 39

George and Dragon, Castleton,

234

Wargrave, 158

General Wolfe, Westerham, 131,

180

Gipsy Queen, Norwood, 131
Glastonbury, George, 39, 199
Gloucester, New Inn, 32, 87,

199

Goat House, Norwood, 206
Godalming, Antelope, 116

King's Arms, 10

Three Lions, 11

Godstone, Clayton Arms, 208
Golden Fleece, South Weald,

63

Golden Lion, St. Ives, 87
Green Dragon, Combe St.

Nicholas, 240
Green Man, Croydon, Dul-

wich, Leytonstone, 65

Tunstall, 236

Green Man and Black's Head,

Ashbourne, 171
Grantham, Angel, 23

Beehive, 168

Blue Inns, 168

Greyhound, Strand, 235
Guildford, Angel, 23

White Hart, 41

White Lion, 117

Gun, Dorking, 123

Half Brick, Worthing, 169
Hampton - on - Thames, Red

Lion, 114
Harrow Weald, Duck in the

pond, 236
Hartfield« Anchor, 78, 142

Haslemere, Fox and Pelican,
231

Hawkhurst, Queen's Hotel, 142

Hemel Hempstead, King's
Arms, x

Hempstead, Crown, 151

Henley-in-Arden, White Swan,
154

Henley-on-Thames, Red Lion,
154

Hereford, Raven, 151

High Beech, Duke of Welling-
ton, 178

High Easter, Punch Bowl, 74,
76

Hind's Head, Bracknell, 187

Hole in the Wall, Borough, 169

Waterloo Station, 169

Hollingbourne, Windmill, 179
Holy Blaise, Kidderminster,

61

Honest Miller, Wye, 168
Horse and Groom, Waltham St.

Lawrence, 136

Hundred House, Purslow, 236
Huntingdon, George, 78, 87

Queen's Head, 79

Hurst, Castle, 75

Isaac Walton, Ashbourne, 144
Islington, Angel, 24

Pied Bull, 120

Queen's Head, 120

Sir Hugh Middleton, 120

Jack of Newbury, Reading, 131
Jack Straw's Castle, Hamp-

stead, 126

Jolly Farmer, Farnham, 151
Jolly Sailor, South Norwood,

131

Kelvedon, Wheatsheaf, 151
Kentish Drovers, Old Kent

Road, 177

King Edgar, Chester, 112
King James and the Tinker,

Enfield, 126
King's Arms, Godalming, 10

292

Index

King's Arms, Hemel Hemp-
stead, x

King's Head, Aylesbury, 59,
195

Chigwell, 158

Roehampton, 118

King's Heath, Red Lion, 236
Kingsbury, Plough, 109
Kidderminster, Holy Blaise,

61

Lamb, Eastbourne, 77

Lamb and Anchor, Bristol, 78

Lamb and Flag, Brighton, 78

Sudbury, Swindon, 78

Leicester, Blue Boar, 117
Lichfield, Black Swan, 261
Lickfold, Three Horseshoes, 108
Lincoln, Reindeer, 138

Lip hook, Anchor, 133

Lisle Castle, Chalk, Gravesend,

208
Long Melford, Bull, 21, 87,

197

Loose, Chequers, 107
Loughton, Wheatsheaf, 234
Ludlow, Feathers, 204, 244
Lurgashall, Noah's Ark, 207
Lygon Arms, Broadway, 244

Mabelthorpe, Book in Hand,

166

Maidenhead, Bear, 126
Maid's Head, Norwich, 202,

245

Maidstone, Nelson, 129
Mailing, Bull, 18
Manchester, Seven Stars, 1
Marlborough, Castle, 91

Five Alls, 176

Marquis of Granby, Deptford,

145

Epsom, 128

Martlesham, Red Lion, 174
Maynard Arms, Bagworth, 236
Midhurst, Spread Eagle, 7
Monster, Pimlico, 161

Nelson, Maidstone, 129

Newark, Ossington, 236

Saracen's Head, 1

Newington, Bull, 19

Falstaff, 153

New Inn, Gloucester, 32, 87,
199

New Romney, 250

Noah's Ark, Lurgashall, 207
Norwich, Maid's Head, 202,

245
Norwood, Gipsy Queen, 131

Goat House, 206

Nautical Inns, 131

Nottingham Castle, Derby, 99
Nottingham, Ram, 1

Old Red House, nr. Newmarket,

79

Old Steyne, Brighton, 216
Old White House, Oxford, 236
Ossington, Newark, 236
Ospringe, Crown, 37

Ship, 37

Ostrich, Colnbrook, 37, 188
Oxford, Elm Tree, 236

Old White House, 236

Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane,
83

Papworth Everard, Three

Horse Shoes, 108
Pelican, Speen, 125
Pied Bull, Islington, 120
Fleshy, White Horse, 98
Plough, Birdbrook, 243

Kingsbury, 109

Smallfield, 208

Upper Dicker, 109

Plumbley, Smoker, 141
Portsmouth, Dolphin, 261

Fountain, 261

Port Sunlight, Bridge Inn, 236
Prince Albert, Rodborough,

235
Punch Bowl, High Easter, 74,

76
Purslow, Hundred House, 236

Queen's Head, Huntingdon, 79

Index

293

Queen's Head, Islington, 120
Queen's Hotel, Hawkhurst, 142

Ram, Nottingham, 1
Raven, Hereford, 151
Reading, Bull, 19
Redbourne, Chequers, 107
Red House, Stratford-on-Avon,

216
Red Lion, Hampton - on -

Thames, 114, 148

Henley, 154

King's Heath, 236

Martlesham, 174

Sittingbourne, 114

Speldhurst, 114

Truro, 244

Wingham, 113, 195

Reformation, Reading, 169
Reindeer, Lincoln, 138
Rochester, Bull, 22, 204

George, 37

Rodborough, Prince Albert,

235

Roehampton, King's Head, 118
Romford, Cock and Bell, 79
Rose, Wokingham, 94
Rose and Crown, Sudbury, 204
Royal Oak, Bettws-y-Coed, 157
Running Horse, Sandling, 141

Saffron Walden, Sun, 174
St. Albans, Bull, 21

Chequers, 107

Fighting Cocks, 2

George, 39

White Hart, 85

St. Anna's Castle, Great

Leighs, 165

Sandiway, Blue Cap, 140
Sandon, Dog and Doublet, 236
Saracen's Head, Newark, 1
Scole, White Hart, 172
Sennen, First and Last, 162
Seven Stars, Manchester, 1
Shefford, Swan, 174
Ship, Norwood, 131

Ospringe, 37, 283

Wingham, 194

Shipton - under - Wychwood,

Crown, 199

Sieve, Minories, E.G., 164
Simon the Tanner, Bennond-

sey, 61
Sir Hugh Middleton, Islington,

132

Sittingbourne, Red Lion, 114
Skittles, Letchworth, 231
Slapestones, Chequers, 110
Smallfield, Plough, 208
Smoker, Plumbley, 141
Sonning, White Hart, 2361
South Weald, Golden Fleece, 63
Speen, Pelican, 125
Speldhurst, Red Lion, 114
Spread Eagle, Midhurst, 7
Spital, Stanmore, 189
Star, Alfriston, 24, 201

Great Yarmouth, 204

Star and Garter, Brighton, 155
Stratford-on-Avon, Red Horse,

216
Strand, Clothiers' Arms,

Greyhound,
Swan, Ash Vale, 143

Clare, 175

Felstead, 51, 75

Fittleworth, 158

Grasmere, 158

Shefford, 174

Sutton Valence, 116

Tarporley, 140

Swan and Maiden Head, Strat-
ford-on-Avon, 152
Sudbury, Bull, 19, 198

Rose and Crown, 204

Sun, Peering. 199

Saffron Walden, 174

Sutton Valence, Swan, 116

Tabard, Southwark, 25

Tarporley, Swan, 140

Ten Bells, Leeds, Kent, 179

Theale, Angel, 175

Three Crosses, nr. Daventry,

263

Three Frogs, Wokingham, 123
Three Horseshoes, Lickfold, 108

235

294

Index

Three Horseshoes, Papworth

Everard, 108

Three Lions, Godalming, 11
Three Pigeons, Brentford, 153
Tiger, Lindfield, 7
Truro, Red Lion, 244
Tunstall, Green Man, 236
Turpin's Cave, High Beech,

170

Unicorn, Weobley, 121
Union, Flyford Flavel, 239
Upper Dicker, Plough, 109
Uxbridge, Crown and Treaty,
133

Walsingham, Black Lion, 115,

151
Waltham Gross, Four Swans,

171

Wantage, Bear, 174
Warbolt - in - Tun, Warbleton,

167
Warlingham, White Lion, 145,

208

Weobly, Unicorn, 121
Wentworth Arms, Elmsthorpe,

236
Westerham, General Wolfe,

132
Westminster, Cock and Tabard,

23

Coach and Horses, 86

West Wickham, White Hart,

235
Wheatsheaf, Kelvedon, 151

Wheatsheaf, Loughton, 234

Bletchingley. 146

White Hart, Borough, 176

Brentwood, 41, 199

Godalming, 117

Godstone, 208

Guildford, 41

St. Albans, 85

Scole, 172

Sonning, 236

West Wickham, 235

Witham, 89, 176

White Horse, Dorking, 26

Kensington, 148

Fleshy, 98

White Lion, Bristol, 117

Guildford, 117

Warlingham, 145

White Swan, Henley-in-Arden,

154

(See also Swan)
William IV, Elmers' End, 235
Winchester, George, 54
Windmill, Hollingbourne, 179
Wingham, Red Lion, 113, 195

Ship, 194

Witham, White Hart, 89, 176
Withyham, Dorset Arms, 107
Wokingham, Rose, 94

Three Frogs, 123

Woodbridge, Bull, 150
Wye, Honest Miller, 168
Wymondham, Green Dragon,

39

Yarmouth, Star, 204

THE END

Press of Isaac Pitman &• Sons, Bath, England.
(2244)

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